Conference 1999: “Living in the Sprawl Zone”
The theme of this year’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, suburban sprawl, is very much on the national pulse. Presidential hopefuls are discussing it—describing it as a significant problem for our environment and our cultural identity (or, alternately, as a false issue, something of concern only for the elite). Major media have been headlining it. Environmentalists, urban planners, industry leaders, state and county governments, and growing numbers of “regular” citizens have become increasingly concerned.
Photographers have played many roles in relationship to the phenomenon. Some have willingly participated in the commercial glorification of the suburbs, the romanticization of car culture, the demonization of the cities. Others have contributed less consciously to the overall cultural milieu that has been propelling sprawl. Still others, in both journalistic and art contexts, have brought forth critical, or at least analytical, visions. Photographers in the U.S. West have taken the lead in establishing critical practices (Robert Adams and Richard Misrach come immediately to mind, but many others, such as Phel Steinmetz and Laurie Brown have done significant work on the subject.) Perhaps they have led because sprawl is so apparent and so undisguiseably ugly in the spare Western landscape. But encounters with hideous examples of sprawl are becoming impossible to avoid even in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Keynote Speaker
James Howard Kunstler is a visual artist (a landscape painter) and writer (of eight novels) who decided to take on the topic of sprawl in his first non-fiction book, the 1994 The Geography of Nowhere. The visual sensibility and straightforward critical style of the book made it a landmark work in the sprawl debate, and Kunstler followed it up with his 1996 Home from Nowhere. We are very pleased to have him as a participant in the conference and its keynote speaker.
photo © Phel Steinmetz
Conference Site
The conference will take place at Salisbury State University, with the primary day of programming on Saturday, October 16th (and optional workshops, competitions and tourist activities on Sunday the 17th). Salisbury, on the DelMarVa Penninsula, near the Maryland Shore and in a rich agricultural area, is a classic small American city experiencing the sprawl phenomenon. Indeed, the planned presence of James Kunstler has attracted attention from Salisbury officials and anti-sprawl activists, and there will be a local media event (radio or television) bringing Mid-Atlantic Board Chair Alan Rutberg together with Kris Hughes, Director of Planning and Zoning for Salisbury City and Wicomico County, and Michael Day, a photo conservationist and the director of the Chipman Cultural Center and others. We are hopeful that, overall, this conference will attract participants from a wider audience than usual. (See Web Links box, below, for Kunstler's, Salisbury's & other sites.)
