American Dreams

American Dreams is an ongoing documentation of rural America. It is a commentary on the fragility the promise and ideal that we grow up with, the belief that we can be better than the generation before. The exhibition is comprised of photographs taken in Cairo, Illinois, a place that 100 years ago was living the American Dream due to its location at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.  The downfall of Cairo as a great river town is attributed to the building of two bridges that directed the majority of traffic away from and to the south of the town. As people left, flooding helped nature reclaim the old buildings. The town went from living the American Dream to an eerie collection of semi-inhabited buildings, living on as a reminder and symbol of the fragility of the ideal, the American Dream.