I am a recently retired over the road truck driver. I have seen so many places I can't even begin to recount them all. I never photographed any of them. The last twenty plus years went by as a blur. Coincidentally that is exactly the way I saw the world through a Freightliner windshield at 65 mph. I have always loved art and the idea of photography. Now I have the time to invest in learning more about it.

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t guessed I live in “The Great State of Depression” otherwise known as Ohio, east central Ohio to be more specific on the edge of Appalachia.

Most of my images are from an area that falls within an imaginary circle sixty miles in diameter, with my home in the center. I’m 64 miles from Wheeling West Virginia, and 64 miles north of Marietta Ohio and an almost equal distance south of Akron Ohio. I am 100 miles from Pittsburgh PA, and 80 miles from Columbus Ohio. I am 19 miles from Millersburg Ohio the county seat of Holmes County which is the center of the largest concentration of Amish families in America. I am 20 miles from Zanesville Ohio home of the Y bridge.

I have driven the back roads of this area for many years hunting and fishing. As a youngster I rode along with my father, uncle and grandfather who were involved in the timber business in one way or another.

I am surrounded by an interesting mix of today and yesterday, the modern and the antique. Not just in architecture but clothing , transportation, home furnishings and equipment as well as cultures.

Many of the old abandoned and decaying locations that I shoot were neither abandoned or considered decaying in my childhood. In some cases I or a family member knew the people who lived there, or at least I remember these locations from better days.

All over the world it’s the same as it is here. Someone’s childhood memory is disappearing even as you read these words, maybe yours. That’s not the reason I photograph them though. I just like the look and feel of them. It doesn’t look like I’m the only one that likes them either.