About
Summer Davis
Summer Davis is an American photographer whose work explores the disappearance of rural landscapes in the changing environment of the South. She is best known for her dead-pan style and color images that are unapologetic in exposing the ecological devastation caused by neighborhood developments. Growing up in a suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia has allowed Summer to experience the population boom of middle-class families firsthand. She documents the evolving landscapes around her to call attention to suburban sprawl, and how it is causing the fading culture of quiet small towns of what was once rural America.
Artist Statement
"Cul-de-sacs" is a photographic series that explores how suburbia is attributing to the disappearance of the landscapes rural working-class families once knew. Neighborhoods are depleting the environment’s open spaces and resources for the ever-growing populations. Young couples often sprawl out to these areas to escape the city, be closer to untouched woodland areas, and start a family. Ironically, the rapid development of these homes is replacing the natural scenery.
Inexpensive mass-produced houses now litter the once rolling agrarian pastures of America. An eagerly growing population creates a need for more infrastructure and space in order to allow each household to live comfortably. This development of a midground between remoteness and skyscrapers is allowing for a different form of community, one that mindlessly demolishes the wilderness and older farming land for a temporary home.
“Cul-de-Sacs” captures a new landscape of the American south, with inspiration from William Eggleston’s and Robert Adams’ iconic style of “straight” documentary photography. This series unapologetically exposes the devastation that suburban sprawl is causing, with landscape photographs of construction sites and a vanishing community of smaller homes and privately-owned businesses. This body of work stands as a wake-up call to those turning a blind eye to the effects suburban growth has on the fading culture of quaint small towns.