Capturing An Inch Of Dust And Decay – Photographer Shares Rural Downfall

Matthew Peake talked about his photo series at a closing reception on Saturday at the Oskaloosa Art Center.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Matthew Peake’s show “The Economic and Social Decline of Rural America” closed on Saturday at the Oskaloosa Art Center.

The show opened on June 10th, which featured photographs Peake has taken across multiple states to showcase small towns in the Midwest in various states of decline.

The work hanging on the walls was taken over approximately 12 years time, and Peake believes that the work on the series will continue and will always be evolving.

Peake, who grew up in a small town of nearly 900 people in northern Iowa, said, “They are rapidly changing. Where I grew up, it’s not the same town anymore.”

After attending college, Peake came back to a different town that he had left behind. “You think of it as a Rockwellian place when you grow up and you come back and it’s in various states of disarray. Businesses come and go. Families come and go.”

Peake said of small towns, “Without industry, your town slowly kind of fades away.”

“My goal was to understand who these communities were by the artifacts they left behind,” added Peake. “Like an anthropological look into rural America, and what was important to these people and why.”

“By taking these places that are in various states of decay, and bringing them into a gallery situation, you give them prominence or importance,” Peake said on why he created the photo series.

As Peake continues to travel, his series continues to grow and evolve. The Oskaloosa show was the second time he’s displayed the work, and there are only 2 photos still on display from that original show. “The work continually evolves.”

Peake says that many of the small towns he photographs have small thriving communities that lack the financial ability to maintain every building.
Other buildings sit as if time had stopped, and the people who use to occupy that space simply had locked up and walked away. An inch of dust on tables with the chairs stacked on top, seemingly ready to open for morning breakfast.

Trophies in the windows of abandoned buildings. Things of such importance now sit forgotten.

Peake says that while documenting these remnants from the past, he’s concluded that these places slowly pass into obscurity due to a lack of jobs “when there’s nothing for young people to come back to” or the idea of the community, or the centralized community we grew up with, has disappeared.”

Keeping money in the community is a vital link to keeping a community vibrant and centralized, is another observation Peake shared. Once those with purchasing power start to leave the community to spend their money, the more difficult it is for a community to sustain itself, when the money isn’t returning back into the community. “What’s left is what you see on the walls.”

You can find out more about Matthew Peake and his photography by visiting his website at – http://matthewpeake.com/