Photographer Matthew Portch is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay.  From the project ‘Lost America’To see Matthew’s body of work, click on any image.

 

Baptist Church, Louisiana

 

Rest Stop, Salt Flats, Utah

 

Hoop by the Sea, California

 

Refinery Cemetery, Louisiana

 

Lost America examines a quiet stillness in a forgotten landscape that is, in a sense: ‘on-pause’.

Backwater towns and rural corners are juxtaposed with the ambiguity of detached suburbia. Places appear frozen in time, their inhabitants absent or long since departed.

Ardently stagnant in their appearance, the images aim to unlock a moment of reflective contemplation and instil a melancholic feeling of familiarity.

One might not notice or acknowledge these spaces, especially when viewed within the vast stretch of America’s panorama. Yet, when framed as a single vignette, the places can appear to echo a moment of mournful reverie. Or, for some, they might behold an alluringly sombre, everlasting impression.

 

66 Drive-In, Missouri

 

House by the Canefields, Louisiana

 

Prada, Marfa

 

Penitentiary Bus, Louisiana

 

The Wall Frame, Arizona

 

All images © Matthew Portch

 

 

See also:

Desert Modern

By Matthew Portch