Magnolia, Texas. April 2006 #1 by Stacy A. Mehrfar

In Stacy Arezou Mehrfar's seriesAmerican Palimpsests, the suburban project born in the postwar boom of the 1950s carries over to the twenty-first century. Photographing in twenty-eight states over the course of five years, Stacy surveyed the ambiguous terrain between wilderness and residence in contemporary society. As she recounted in an interview with Amy Stein on Amy's blog, these journeys began when American residential development was expanding at an enormous pace. Yet for all of this construction in the service of habitation, she found isolation:

Days would go by where I would hardly see a soul. Many of the suburbs were eerily silent. Cold, even when it was hot outside. Empty, even before the foreclosure crisis had begun. Traveling for days in these communities was awfully dismal and lonely.

These uncanny qualities are demonstrated in Magnolia, Texas. A newly paved patch of development bears the traces of construction vehicles, but little else. An environment in a state of suspension, the visible forest around this cul-de-sac will someday disappear, creating another neighborhood in a dead end.

Stacy also recently received an Honorable Mention in the Fine Art category in Blurb's Photography.Book.Now competition, whose lead judge is photobook evangelist and Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Darius Himes. The book she created, American Palimpsests | This Was What There Was, incorporates a second body of work created on her journeys. As mentioned earlier, for the next few weeks, Flak Photo is showcasing twenty-five top books from this year's PBN, including Stacy's.