As June rears its ugly, sweaty head, I am once again delighted by the variety and strength of submissions to May’s What We’ve Found! There were many commonalities to be found, such as the American white picket fence, golden retrievers, and the unmistakable triangular slopes of suburban roofing. The latter is almost omnipresent in a way that seems like it could be a big deal symbolically (and maybe it is), yet it’s also banal and utilitarian, because most roofs kind of need to be sloped like that. Still, there’s no denying that these structures get seared into one’s brain after spending a good amount of time in the burbs.
What was perhaps more interesting was the quiet loneliness I discovered in the final curation. Every human face here is obscured – behind fence of some sort, missing entirely, or simply looking away from the photographer. When a house is detached from its inhabitants, there’s practically no ethos to be found at all within. Suburbs were originally built to fulfill what seemed like a human need, but it seems in recent decades that we’ve lost all sense of a healthy stopping point as gentrification and excessive land usage run rampant. Now it is something both human and not as we perpetually reconcile our needs and wants with our potential for destruction. As is the case with many facets of existing in the 21st century, there is a dark sense of complacency over what can’t fairly be considered individual guilt.
Sam DePoto – @sam_de_poto
Emily Najera – @emilynajeraphoto
Dan Rubenbauer – @spaniel_groobs
Katerina Voegtle – @katerina.kvee
Gabrielle Brooks – @gabrielle.emb
Danny Klein – @churrdanny
Tyler Landes – @tylerlandes
Tyler Landes – @tylerlandes
Anna Schneider – @annarschneider
Margo Reed – @margoreedphoto
Joseph Ritchie – @josephwritchie
Zoie Kasper – @zoiekasper
Samantha Siegler – @samisiegler
Magnus Holmes – @magnusholmes
Robert Gordon – @robgordon87
Thank you all so much for your submissions, and don’t forget to submit to June’s upcoming WWF for another chance to be featured!