Florida has changed dramatically during my six decades as a resident. I often long for the pristine natural areas and rural country roads abundant in my childhood memories. I decided to hit the backroads to see how much if any of “Old Florida” still exists.
The trips led me to creating Florida Landscape photos with a nostalgic twist. Each image is shot with a hand-built diorama in the foreground featuring 1960’s era cars and highway billboards. He researches and travels the backroads of Florida to bring to life colorful memories of the pre-Disney and pre-Interstate Florida family vacation. He recreates the wonder of a child looking out the back of a station wagon to view vast natural waterscapes.
The highway billboards of this decade lured family vacationers to witness animal shows with monster-sized creatures. Roadside stands sold citrus perfume, boiled peanuts, and stuffed alligator heads.
“Finding Florida’ began for me as a nostalgia project and became a history lesson.
All of my photos are created entirely “in-camera”. I setup a tripod, bolt a hand-built diorama onto the top of a step ladder then place the camera’s lens extremely close to the “vintage cars”.
The closeness of the lens to subject does the work to seamlessly weave together foreground and background. This technique, called forced perspective, is how early cinematographers made Godzilla and King Kong seem larger than life.
I wondered, “How much of Old Florida still exists?”
“I had fun motoring across the peninsula to chase old Florida fruit stands, family run attractions, historic downtowns and untamed wilderness. But I also learned sad truths about a state slow to implement civil rights and eager for upscale development at the cost of natural preservation. I tried to capture the reality of the times, good and bad, and believe I have just scratched the surface of a larger journey.”
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