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A window on 'forgotten' America: More fascinating images of country's poorest communities from Google Street View artist


By Lydia Warren and Daily Mail Reporter
UPDATED: 17:34 GMT, 3 June 2012

Lined with stores closed down long ago, sad-looking homes and deserted properties they are America's 'forgotten streets'.
But one artist is forcing people to take a closer look at the often ignored places hit with financial struggles over the years.
Using Google Street View, Doug Rickard was able to capture images from states all over the U.S including Michigan, California, Arkansas and New Jersey - without ever leaving his own home.

Using the internet tool, California-born Rickard roamed America's streets for snapshots of run-down neighbourhoods.
The thought-provoking images paint a stark picture of the places stuggling to get by following the economic recession.

When Google Street View was launched in 2007, the search engine set out to capture every corner of the country.

It sent out cars – each with nine directional cameras mounted on its roof – to every street in the United States.


The cameras provided a 360 degree image of the surroundings from a height of around 8.2 feet.

Millions of streets were captured by the project, providing a snapshot of America’s neighbourhoods and residents going about their lives.
Rickard trawled through thousands of cities and back roads looking for images that show the bleakness of the country’s 'forgotten' places.

Internet users can now submit their own images of not-yet photographed places.

He then re-photographed the images in his studio as they appear on the computer screen, giving some of the pictures the impression they have been painted.

The detached nature of the camera gives a feeling of alienation throughout the series of coloured photographs, entitled A New American Picture.

Many feature the haunting, blurring effect employed by Google to anonymise individuals’ faces.

The collection contains images from areas battered by recent crises including Detroit, Michigan and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The pictures show loan figures skulking past shabby buildings and through empty parking lots.
In others, people are pictured loitering outside closed-down shops in the middle of the day, while children play on grey, abandoned streets.


Rickard describes the eerie images as having an 'apocalyptic-like brokenness'.
It is a modern approach to the tradition of street photographers concerned with American life, such as Paul Graham and Walker Evans.

From a stash of around 15,000 shots, Rickard chose about 80 images for his A New American Picture collection.
In January a selection of the photographs featured in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

They were also part of an exhibition entitled Publicly Private which also showcased New York subway scenes captured by photographer Enrico Natali in 1960.

The exhibition ran from January through to April 22 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1xJMMQfXp