PROJECT STATEMENT: 101A (2014)

Route 101A is a fourteen-mile stretch of road in southern New Hampshire notorious for its suburban sprawl: big-box stores, strip malls, and used car dealerships have replaced farmland and wilderness. The highway bisects quiet New England villages with pristine historic districts and dying main streets. Local citizens now flock to shop on the 101A strip.

I grew up in a New England town not far from 101A and watched as developers bought up working farms and open fields, converting bucolic land into generic housing subdivisions. This image has haunted me and became the inspiration for this series. I spent years living and working near 101A, and see it as archetypal of this form of economic development.

101A is my micro-examination of the effects of economic colonialism—a system that values profit over people, nature, and community. For me, the project is about the absurdity introduced into local communities when land and businesses are owned by faraway entities and managed by distant boardrooms. It is about regional identity under the strain of global capitalism. This expanse of roadway encapsulates an issue being acutely experienced across the country and beyond. The photographs are my response to an environment created when local stakeholders are excluded from decisions within their community—and the resulting subversion of human and ecological needs.

Matt Hogan