Rebecca
Hackemann

Polaroids -Roadside Nostalgia

This series is comprised of over 300 Impossible Project circular polaroids taken of derelict or unused establishments in America beginning in 2015 - 2018. The polaroid, traditionally an old snapshot medium, gives these signs and abandoned businesses a small one of a kind unique memorial, a new life as a photograph, using a one of a kind (edition 1/1) analog process – the instant photography (polaroid) method that also stems from the time these establishments were still open as a vernacular record of family roadtrips, creates a unique image – 1/1.

The signs and establishments often sit derelict beside single lane little used bi ways and single lane highways. Perhaps these are the forgotten towns, that once boomed during summer roadtrip tourist season and are now bypassed by the interstate highways. Perhaps they are the forgotten towns of Trump America – to me as a European, the fact that they sit there baking in the sun is astonishing. They are not torn down, but left there. The disparity between the cost of real estate in these empty places, sometimes even ghost towns, and the larger cities is a startling reality.