Promised Land
Since I was young I’ve been fascinated by the grandeur and history of the American West. As an adult my interest has narrowed to the relationship Americans hold with the western landscape and its continual development. Promised Land examines the once held American belief of Manifest Destiny - the 19th Century mantra that the United States was predestined to spread over the entire continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Motivated by President Jefferson and the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Westward settlers quickly achieved this goal when in 1912 Arizona joined as the final state in the continental U.S. forming an uninterrupted nation stretching from sea to shining sea.
At its origin, Manifest Destiny confronted a territory that was vastly unknown to most Americans. Today it is apparent to anyone headed out on the interstate that the West - once a great frontier - has become accessible in nearly every corner on its surface. The photographs in this series are appraisals of the American thumbprint on the West, at points where population and a wild landscape intersect. Through these images Promise Land surveys the idea of Manifest Destiny over 150 years since its conception and reveals the results of a once monumental belief now evidenced in the West.
