Before and After

For the first time we were able to get some before and after shots of the land as it was being developed. We now wish that we had more carefully marked the spots that we were photographing from on previous trips to the woods because there is something really compelling about having a before and after image. One of the things we found most challenging was to photograph the parts of the mountain that had been dynamited and cleared without making spectacular images. There were many images in which the destroyed part of the hill looked phenomenal, almost more grandiose than the forest. This was in some ways, an unexpected part of the project, and somewhat troubling. Although it is a different subject matter, I couldn't help but think of Coco Fusco's piece "Better yet when dead" (1997). Even blown apart the mountain side looks monumental. It is really only once the houses and roads appear that the physical qualities of the landscape that make it identifiable as a "mountain" disappear.