Growing up in the rural south in the ‘50’s and 60’s, I witnessed the harsh living conditions endured by tenant farmers and their families, conditions reminiscent of those captured by Walker Evans and William Christenberry. I return yearly to the same area and now find these homes uncared for, crumbling, and often engulfed by uncontrolled vines and forests. These places have a voice telling of a time that has been left behind; they have inspired me to look closely at other places of living or work that have been left but still tell a story. While conditions I record differ greatly from those of the tenant farmers in the south, for me there is the connection of hard work, little pay, and treatment as members of a lower class of people. Years ago, I worked in some of the buildings pictured here, now closed and abandoned, and these themes speak to me in these places, too.
© Bob Bass