The project started in 2016 when I began photographing a suburban housing development called ‘Woodland Cove’. I was inspired by Witold Rybczynski’s “Last Harvest”. The development is a conversion from farmland to a neighborhood.

The scope of ‘County Ditch’ has since expanded and narrowed. Using the perspective of domicology and appropriating ‘shifting landscape theory’ I want to learn and show the who, why, and how of land use in Minnesota. Land use dictates how and where we live, work, and play. It dictates how and why we go to places. It is the interface with the landscape.

The name, ‘County Ditch’ comes from our contemporary relationship with land and water; water has an immense effect on land use decisions in Minnesota. Countless livelihoods, endless enjoyment, and occasional treachery and controversy are the result of Minnesota’s vast expanse of frozen and flowing bodies of water. The effect that water has on land is incalculable in the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes’.

A “ditch” is an open channel to conduct the flow of water. 
 - State of Minnesota 2022 statutes

County ditches litter the landscape of Minnesota and serve as an economic, political, geographic, and cultural symbol for our relationship with the landscape. It’s also an attempt to draw attention to the mundane and passive ways we impose ourselves on and are imposed on by the landscape.

Land Acknowledgement: This project recognizes that the land called Minnesota was and is Očhéthi Šakówiŋ/Dakota/Sioux and Chippewa/Ojibwa territory. Throughout the project Dakota and Chippewa will be the primary names used. As well “Minnesota” will be used in exchange for “the land now called Minnesota” for ease and brevity.

The project has received funding from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council. If you are interested in supporting the project in any way please do not hesitate to reach out.

I am actively seeking people and organizations to interview about their relationship with land or water in Minnesota. Any and all perspectives are welcome.