Lay of the Land
(1991 - 2001)
A series of photographs made in New York and New Jersey with a 'Pannaroma 1X3' camera, designed and hand-made by the photographer Thomas Roma.
Why even bother going back? Do you feel a tug, an obligation, some kind of guilt? Or are you trying to understand why the fuck anyone, including yourself, would retreat to the relative comfort of slow boredom, the oppression of all that stuff, the crowds of familiar strangers, the obligation to keep up appearances, and the shimmer of vinyl homes, vinyl windows, plastic everything, piles everywhere. You put yourself through the gauntlet of arrivals and departures, the lonely wandering through a familiar map of streets, structures, bodies and faces that couldn’t seem more distant. And you bring it back with you. - Nat Ward