Untitled, 2007 by Carrie Chalmers

Ithaca-based photographer Carrie Chalmers' series In November is awash with the even, gray light of an early winter's day. Snow dusts signs, yards, and rooftops and landscapes are dominated by hues of white and gray. This work was created on Thanksgiving Day 2007, when Chalmers traveled from Ithaca to Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side), and found herself intrigued by the semi-urban landscapes several blocks away from the main tourist strip. It is left to question whether these spaces are void of people because it is a holiday, or, as the language on signs and visions of vacant lots suggest, that this is a community in greater decline. Either way, a lingering sadness hangs heavy in the images' color palette and one can imagine Chalmers with her camera as the lone soul who was walking around on this day.

She writes,

The gaudy strip along Victoria Avenue and Clifton Hill seemed dull in the grey light despite the flashing signs of nearly empty attractions. But a few blocks away in the residential and commercial districts I found the sublime and paradoxical in structures and landscapes. The photographs express a struggle between expectations and disappointment, the present and absent, the possible and impossible, the familiar and foreign, loneliness and connection.

Chalmers' series brings to mind several of the images in Alec Soth's well-known project, Niagara, like Balloon (above), which also captures the feeling of abandon and an affronting loneliness in this supposed tourists' paradise. Large, blank building and motel facades at night create a discomforting portrait of a place when juxtaposed with hopeful newlyweds and out-of-towners. Combined, the images make up a uniquely American and unusually uncertain destination.

Visit Carrie's website to see additional projects and more work from In November.