Stormbelt 1-5


  • Photographer
    Robert Leslie
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    Jan 2009-Dec 2011

Two 5000 mile journeys from Miami to Los Angeles observing & examining the environmental & economic impact across the Sun Belt. The first trip began the day Barrack Obama entered the White House....

Story

Edward Burtynsky : "The images that Leslie made on his journey across the region at this time in history reveal a quiet despair. Moving across the country with his eye and camera we see that this is no longer a confident nation leading a new world order; this is a disillusioned people who've had something taken away from them by an adversary they couldn't quite identify or agree upon. They await the coming storm, tenuously holding their worlds together with tape and twine. The richest country in the world seems to have turned its back on those on the lower rungs, who were now left battling an economic climate where the odds were no longer in their favour. The world watched aghast. Was this the beginning of the decline of the American Empire?"

Leslie : " I began my journey on January 20, 2009, the day of the inauguration of then President elect, Barack Obama.
The America that greeted me was an intoxicating mix of both the known and unknown. I recorded and photographed a country showing the wear and cracks of not only the economic recession but the devastating effect of hurricanes, floods and fire.
Traveling westward I found myself with an overwhelming sense of solitude and isolation. There was hope in the air with the promise of Obama, but the communities I explored only seemed to reinforce the idea that prosperity and development hadn’t reached much of the American heartland. I found myself learning a new and supremely challenged America."

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