Topophilia Topophilia is literally “love of place.” When Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan wrote a book entitled Topophilia in the 1970s, he claimed that the term could include “all emotional connections between physical environment and human beings.” Landscape photographers must focus on the natural beauty of place, the topography of the land and the dynamics of how light touches the earth. They reject man-made obstructions. Rather than exploring the natural landscape, I’m more drawn to the social landscape and the hints of the humans who were there. My quest in this series is to document these very obstructions and to focus on the traces of people and how they leave their marks on the landscape in simple and beautiful ways. Homecoming at Jenkins County High School in Millen, Georgia Jenkins County, Georgia Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Eagle Rock, Los Angeles The Fountain of Youth Spa, Niland, CA Hotel art in Block Island, RI Author Karin Slaughter’s map in her North Georgia mountain Bed at an inn in the Aran Islands of Ireland Everglades City, Florida church potluck Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic recovery room Everglades City, Florida, the view above an airboat Rural Kansas barn Cienfuegos, Cuba Jenkins County, Georgia New Orleans ladder Skull Valley, Arizona Sun City Girl’s bedroom, Prescott, AZ Sun City, Arizona After the high school reunion, Lebanon, Kansas Sun City Lamb at a Greek Orthodox Easter feast in the Atlanta suburbs Masterpiece A back wall of the Sun City Model Railroad Club Skull Valley, Arizona Lincoln Park, Los Angeles Music plays as members of the Riverside Gurdwara Dublin, Ireland Kansas wheat field and a dirt road Kansas wheat field A portrait of Lebanon, Kansas, geographic center of the continenal United States and population around 200. Photographed May 2010. Lebanon, Kansas Sun City, Arizona Sun City, Arizona Sun City, Arizona Havana, Cuba Whitehall, Montana farmer’s market Mars Hill, North Carolina Topophilia is literally “love of place.” When Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan wrote a book entitled Topophilia in the 1970s, he claimed that the term could include “all emotional connections between physical environment and human beings.” Landscape photographers must focus on the natural beauty of place, the topography of the land and the dynamics of how light touches the earth. They reject man-made obstructions. Rather than exploring the natural landscape, I’m more drawn to the social landscape and the hints of the humans who were there. My quest in this series is to document these very obstructions and to focus on the traces of people and how they leave their marks on the landscape in simple and beautiful ways.Homecoming at Jenkins County High School in Millen, Georgia Jenkins County, Georgia Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Eagle Rock, Los Angeles The Fountain of Youth Spa, Niland, CA Hotel art in Block Island, RI Author Karin Slaughter’s map in her North Georgia mountain Bed at an inn in the Aran Islands of Ireland Everglades City, Florida church potluck Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic recovery room Everglades City, Florida, the view above an airboat Rural Kansas barn Cienfuegos, Cuba Jenkins County, Georgia New Orleans ladder Skull Valley, Arizona Sun City Girl’s bedroom, Prescott, AZ Sun City, Arizona After the high school reunion, Lebanon, Kansas Sun City Lamb at a Greek Orthodox Easter feast in the Atlanta suburbs Masterpiece A back wall of the Sun City Model Railroad Club Skull Valley, Arizona Lincoln Park, Los Angeles Music plays as members of the Riverside Gurdwara Dublin, Ireland Kansas wheat field and a dirt road Kansas wheat field A portrait of Lebanon, Kansas, geographic center of the continenal United States and population around 200. Photographed May 2010. Lebanon, Kansas Sun City, Arizona Sun City, Arizona Sun City, Arizona Havana, Cuba Whitehall, Montana farmer’s market Mars Hill, North Carolina