I started seeing memorials spring up in locations where I wouldn't expect an accident had happened. From your vantage point the debris may have been cleaned and the structures repaired. But the ornamentation appears, almost on a life cycle of it's own.

I have been working on this project for a number of years and, sadly, there is a long way to go before I finish telling this story. There have been frequent breaks. Times that the weight of the situation settles on me as I realize I'm standing where somebody lost their life, leaving behind a mother, father, brother, sister, wife, children and friends to pick up the pieces.

I set up rules for my process. I need to find the memorials organically and prefer not to know anything about the circumstances. To know the circumstances of the accident creates a bias which influences my reportage; these photos are not intended to pass judgement. My process is simple. I might drive to a memorial I spotted on the way to work. Or maybe I'll pick a direction and just drive. If I feel I can capture the image I want safely I'll pull over, set up, and start capturing the scene.

The scene is less a landscape than it is a still life, capturing the way the survivors associate their loved ones with a time and place. For me, the landscape is less important than the details. How has the space been decorated? What trinkets are associated with the victim while those around them mourn? What do the survivors hope passers-by will learn about the person they have lost?