Statement of Intent
Name: Chris Cullen
Assessment: ARPS Landscape 2ndOct 2024
In 2022 I visited Montana and North Dakota for a road trip to explore deserted farming and railway settlements caused by dramatic population decline over many decades
The winter conditions I encountered underlined to me the harsh realities that had faced the families that once called the ‘ghost’ communities home. The snow-covered plains were dotted with abandoned vhicles and derelict farms, schoolhouses and churches, many on the point of collapse, battered by bitter winter and scorching summers.
It was humbling to see what were once family homes and treasured farms, now crumbling and desolate. This emptiness and abandonment made me think of the Higland Clerances that had blighted my native Scotland.
This panel of images are my reaction to these scenes of desolation, dereliction and decay, My aim is to convey my emotions of overwhelming sadness, of loss and abandonment that I felt as a witness to all this.














