Junked is a generational approach to abandoned automobiles and their relationship with the landscape.

Over time the remains of the vehicles are left to withstand the elements. Like forgotten headstones, they are slowly being integrated into the landscape as part of the Earth's natural recycling process. Junked is a mutation of the past and present, slowly evolving over time. As one generation ends, a new one begins on the foundation of the old.

The body of work was inspired by the New Topographers, whose images taken in the mid 1970's focused on the negative impact civilization was having on the world. In 1975 George Eastman House in Rochester, New York organized an exhibit displaying the works of Bernd and Hilla Becher, Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, Frank Gohlke and Lewis Baltz. The exhibit was titled, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape. The work was a scientific approach, influenced by social and political concerns.

A torn apart Volkswagen Bug caught in the erosion of a canyon, first triggered the topic of an industrial icon being returned back to the Earth. Only it wasn't just a product of manufactured waste, like an empty beer bottle tossed out of a window or the industrial parks the New Topographers had documented, but a reflection of history, personality and the American Dream.

In today's times, we can see why people may still have one of these old relics lying around, retiring in old age. However it is not uncommon to see ones that have been broken down to a less desirable fate. Displaced in shallow or open graves, many are used in riverbanks, hillsides and washes to control erosion. Some, sprayed with bullet holes, are just used for target practice.

The images were made in various New Mexico landscapes, during the first several years just after the new millennium. The scenes were lit on location powered by a Honda gasoline generator and recorded using a 4x5 view camera. I later printed them in the darkroom on Kodak Metallic paper from color negative.

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