journeys > postcards from paradise

Postcards from Paradise was a subscription-based series inspired by the ill-fated plan to dramatically increase coal exports from the Powder River Basin to China, via rail, through the small towns of the American West. Before coal prices declined, four new export terminals were planned in the Pacific Northwest. I traveled the proposed route and photographed public space in 26 roughly-equidistant small towns along the way. Over the photos, I painted imaginary (and very bad) public art. I then rephotographed them and printed the series as postcards. The verso text described the (real) industrial abuses of the rural West being memorialized by the (imagined) public art. My handwriting issued dispatches from an (imaginary version of the real) road trip that lasted the year-long term of the subscription.
*I will update this page with the written component soon. postcardsfromparadise.net has been dismantled.