Being someone who has always been drawn to lost and abandoned places – old cars, rusted fuel tanks, empty buildings – I can now read those forgotten items and finally tell their stories. After having two daughters, that excitement of finding these places turned into worry: What are we leaving behind for them? This project, Lost Rust, shows the forgottenness of the land, specifically Exmouth, Western Australia: a town originally built for the U.S. Naval Base… which has since packed up and left. Broken-down heavy equipment, half-buried vehicles, and splintered wood now blend into the red desert landscape. Tight frames in early morning or late afternoon light allow me to reveal every scratch, flake of orange rust, and peeling/cracking layer of paint to viewers so they can’t ignore the damage that has been caused and left to be forgotten.

While nature is resilient and tough, each mark we leave stays for years and years. I constantly ask myself four questions: How long is trash just trash? When does it become a part of the landscape? Will animals and critters turn it into a home? And can decay ever turn into something new? I don’t have the final answers to these questions. I invite viewers to focus on thinking and answering these questions as well. Every time I return to places like this one, even though the cracks grow deeper, tiny plants seem to be trying to push through the rusting metal, proving that nothing is truly still. I focus on these images to scream, “Hey! Look closely! Do you see what we are doing?!” as a result, ask themselves what kind of legacy they want to leave behind for years to come?