These photos, taken between 2018 and 2026 address the commonalities between fear and loneliness. During the first Trump administration and into the second I lost my home in the mountains of North Carolina, relocated to the piedmont area of the state, and traveled a lot on Greyhound, Amtrak, or with friends photographing sights that made me feel out of place and scenes where humans or animals seemed to be feeling similarly. Out of thousands of photos I tried to choose those potentially capable of sharing these emotions with viewers. To do that I tried to pick content that was garish, mysterious, and/or all too realistic for the places where the photos were taken. The loneliness and fear that can come in the face of change appears throughout. “Damnation” is an exaggerated term that seemed appropriate for the ghoulish, sad, or doomy appearance of the pieces included.

The solitary, alone figures in “Asheville Weeknight,” “Chippy Misses Everyone,” and “Washington DC” appear to be lost and beleaguered in their worlds. “Winter Vacations Over” and “Spook Hillsborough” were taken from the windows of moving vehicles on my travels, capturing places I didn’t have a chance to linger. “Former BROOKS Factory Window,” “Introducing the West Market Scourge,” and “River Arts District Gentrification” all capture sights embodying the changes in the cities of Greensboro, North Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina as these cities have changed; the former from a factory town to one dominated by students and their housing, the latter from a sleepy vacation destination to a playground for the monied. “Doom Sunset,” “Black Mountain,” “Confirmed Bachelor Pad,” and “Neighborhood Damnation” were captured because they embodied anxieties I felt about the future.