Country Places Photographs

“What kind of a house is this”, he said
“Where I have come to roam ?”
“It's not a house”, said Judas Priest
“It's not a house, it’s a home.”

Bob Dylan, Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

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Driving along a country road watching the passing buildings is like seeing clues to a mystery. The shapes of the building, the placement of trees, the slope of the land, the textures of the surrounding plants and trees, all combine to create a unique visual personality for each home which reflects the lives of the people who live, or lived, in them

I imagine each one to have a special human story — houses and barns are places where people live and work,—what do these buildings say about them? Often country buidlings are not just things that people buy such as clothes or a car and then feel as if the thing that they bought is some insight into who they are. Farms are living and working environments , for the people who live and work there its the center of their life.

In many of these images the house— I want it to be a home—is hiding behind trees or a hill; in others the occupants have deserted, perhaps a dream that could not be realized or perhaps they left for a better dream.

These images are from Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Each of them seems unique to me, and full of mysteries.

Steve Naegele