10 Years Ago, Yesterday

Exactly ten years ago yesterdy, I made this picture. At the time this scene was a recently abandoned (six months) little house on the property edge of a rural High School in North Carolina. It was freshly filled with angst as borne out by the inscriptions on the walls with spray paint: "Death comes easy to those who smoke - If you smoke you better clean up."

just inside the left frame of the picture, you see a closet created by ripping the plaster off the wallboards and removing enough boards to access the space between the walls; to install a curtain rod and clothes. Mixed with the hanging clothes were clothes just back from the cleaners, still in plastic bagging. The contrast was striking.

I have returned to this house many times since that day. I have documented it as it deteriorated. As of last year, the clothes were still hanging; the furniture in the same place; curtains are as seen. Just more dust, lots of dust. The dry-cleaning was still bagged; plastic yellowed.