Finding Beauty in 'Abandonings'
With a finicky panorama camera. Maxwell Mackenzie captured such landscapes as ÛÏEverts Township, Homestead II.Û</br></br>With a finicky panorama camera. Maxwell Mackenzie captured such landscapes as ÛÏEverts Township, Homestead II.Û early Ûª92 took a great toll on freelance photographers. Some wound up taking second jobs to pay their bills; some quit photography altogether. Happily for Maxwell MacKenzieÛÓand for the rest of usÛÓ the downturn in his flourishing architectural photography business gave him the chance to pursue a lifeÛªs dream; to document the poignant decay of the farmhouses, barns, churches and schoolhouses of his native Otter Tail County, Minn.</br></br>The body of work he produced over the course of two yearsÛÓa massive archive of abandonmentÛÓhas just been published by Elliott & Clark of Washington. ÛÏAbandonings" ($22.95) is one of the most beautiful and eloquent books of landscape photography I ever have seen. It also is a fascinating look at what a panorama camera can do when used by a master.</br></br>ÛÏAs I drove the hundreds of back roads [of Otter Tail County],Û MacKenzie writes in his preface, ÛÏI felt the need to document some of what</br></br>To me, this landscape and these buildingsÛÓsad, empty, silent houses and falling-down barnsÛÓpossess a profound beauty, not merely for their spare, simple designs and weathered boards, but as monuments to the men and women who, like my own ancestors, made long journeys and endured great hardships to reach this remote part of America and build in it a new home.Û