Environment Brief David Plowden

David Plowden 

Background information on David Plowden 

David Plowden, born October 9, 1932, is an American photographer known for his historical documentary photography of urban cities, steam trains, American farmlands, and small towns. 

While looking through the Uca library a book by David Plowden stood out to me. 'A Handful of Dust' is a collection of work he did looking at America and how it seems to be 'disappearing'. 

"The America of these photographs is a bitter-sweet reminder of things once cherished, and a life no longer possible. Deserted Main Streets and crumbling facades stare at us blindly. Abandoned houses and buildings reach back to ground." - David Plowden 

How this fits in with my Idea ?

My idea for this project brief was to look at elegant and very detailed architectural buildings that once were used but have now sadly been left to be subject to neglect and carelessness.

Within this i will also look at how small towns for example Rochester are suffering under economical stress apposed to main cities for example London.

Why is David Plowden Relevant to my idea/ Theme 

Plowdens images were taken in a time where much like our economy economic growth and job growth was slow, economic growth and job growth both fell in 2006 (Around about the same time as the book was published) from previous years as the residential housing boom came to an end.

Statistics 

The labor market weakened:

• Job growth continued to drop. In 2006, the economy added on average 149,000 new jobs per month, down from 165,000 new jobs in 2005 and 175,000 in 2004. Job growth was 14.5 percent slower in 2006 than in 2004, the year with the highest job growth in this business cycle, which started in March 2001.
• Wages made up a record low share of national income. In the third quarter, wages and salaries made up 51.4 percent of national income, the smallest share since the U.S. government began to collect this data in 1947. Total compensation, which includes benefits, dropped to the lowest share in nine years. At the same time, profits grew to the largest share of national income since 1947.

A Handful Of Dusts cover really stood out to me.

Bibliography 

A Handful of Dust: Disappearing America, W. W. Norton & Company, 2006

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2006/12/21/2420/the-u-s-economy-in-review-2006/