!VAR HAGENDOORN

A Perspective on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

For more than 20 years the American aerial photographer Alex Maclean has documented the American landscape in breathtaking captures. His focus is on the intersection between the natural and man-made environment. His book Taking Measures Across the American Landscape is among my favourite photography monographs.

His latest book, Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point brings together a number of photos covering the challenges facing the U.S. from automobile dependency to electricity generation, urban decay and waste management.

Some photos condense an entire social-economic analysis into a single frame. The large housing developments in Arizona, Nevada and Texas place a great strain on natural water supplies. There are no shops, schools or other facilities in the immediate environment so people have to drive to work, school, the mall etc. Since homes are spread out over a vast area there is little if any sense of community. Since everything has been planned there are no derelict places for children to play. Waste collection, water distribution etc are all extremely inefficient because the developments are spread out horizontally.

In case you wondered where all that subprime, alt-A mortgage money went during the U.S. housing bubble, have a look at some of Alex Maclean's photos.

Update: In a recent blogpost Allison Arieff over at the New York Times discusses the related question, what to do with all those half-built suburbs, abandoned houses and razed but empty building plots.