I've been thinking that throughout the year I will venture back home and to the surrounding areas to try and capture what life is like now. When I was young and living in rural Brown County Ohio it seemed like my surroundings were how the world was. The only time we got a glimpse of "the outside world" was by watching the news, going on vacation, or hearing about it from those who had ventured out. We weren't close minded by any stretch but we were kinda blind to society in general.
I remember going to rent a VHS tape or a video game on Friday nights. This was how we made it thru the weekend during brutal winters. I remember seeing all of the adults working hard every day. It seemed like everyone worked and contributed to something. I remember when the biggest news of the week was a small fender bender at the stop light. Now, I am talking about the early 90s so I get it, things as a whole were different everywhere but, as a small town kid, none of us knew this. We thought the world was in our 15 mile radius.
I want to revisit with a goal to capture a little of the past with a little of current times. The VHS and game rental store is still standing. It may be empty but it is still there. All of the hardworking adults I remember have either retired, passed on, or lost their job due to rural economy troubles. The biggest news of the week is no longer a fender bender. It is usually who's house got robbed, who overdosed, or who went to jail. This may sound extreme but it is the truth. Rural living has changed drastically. Farming and hard work have been replaced with technology. This isn't to say that I'm just going to snap shots of negative doom and gloom. These are just part of the reality that I want to capture. My main goal is to just capture the current reality as it is with no influence. I want to see how much has changed from what I remember and try to tell a story thru photographs.
I hope to start this process in the coming months and build a body of work to either show as it comes along or as an entire collective all at once. In a world of selfies, weddings, and more selfies....... I'd like to return back to story telling thru photography.
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