Urban Sprawl

So, I should have posted a bunch of stuff weeks ago. But, due to circumstances surrounding our office, i.e. to busy to do anything else but work, I am posting this...finally.Geraldine Erfert is upset that the home she moved into as a newlywed in 1946 has been sitting on beams waiting to be moved for nearly three years. She is even more upset that vagrants have broken, vandals have tagged it and pigeons live in the old farm house north of Colo. Highway 66 and U.S. Highway 287. Geraldine and her son Ivan, who was born at the home, have been in a dispute with a structure moving company over equipment rental charges. Both parties say the structure will be moved off the property, now owned by Wal-Mart, in the coming months. “I’m heartbroken. It’s truly sad. We were the fourth generation to be there,” Geraldine said.

I met her out at the home for a portrait. It sits off the highway, in a field, down and embankment and on the other side of the fence. Her son said she may not be able to get out there, but agreed to the meeting. My intentions were to photograph her on the road with the home over the shoulder. But, upon arrival she hopped out of the car, down the embankment, over the fence, through the weeds and shaking her cane all the way there. She is upset, sad and disappointed, that's for sure. She insisted on climbing onto the porch to catch a glimpse inside, just to make sure her couch was still there. While I did photograph her standing on a huge I-Beam, I thought this photo showed her feelings a little more. Oh, the joys of urban sprawl.