Cape America

Gloucester as America

I have photographed the City from the inside...I have shown what lies behind the postcard views, a bit of the edge, the grit of her streets and the people who make up Down Town. The city is suffering a loss of industry and experiencing rapid gentrification. This is not an uncommon American story. You can trade fish for family farming or steel mill work or car production and the faces and the strains would all feel familiar.

Gloucester has been a fishing community since 1623, and has an extensive history in American art. The painters Hopper, Sloan, Homer, Fitz H. Lane, and Hassam to name but a few, worked here. Arron Siskind and Gordon Parks also photographed the city in the 1940s. This body of work documents what was here during this moment of transition, the people and their place. It also raises some serious questions about our notion of progress, homogenization of culture , the loss of character and the erosion of community.

This work is about the Character of this Place and yet of all places.

This work was partially funded by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council / SeArts and The Gloucester Cultural Council / City of Gloucester.