Visualizing Vacancy In Buffalo NY

Vacant land tells the story of a city; in Buffalo, New York this story is one of loss. Over the past 60 years the population has gone from an all time high of over 580,000 to about 261,000. This has left the city littered with vacant lots and properties. Buffalo is now ranked third in the nation for vacant land as a portion of total area (15.7%). Vacancy has fractured once strong and vibrant neighborhoods and is a huge obstacle for the city to overcome.

This 15.7% breaks down to around 16,000 vacant lots or over 8 square miles of the city. Between 5,000 and 7,500 of these lots are owned by the City. These scars on the landscape cast a forlorn look across much of the city’s East Side where the vacancy is most prolific. Blight spreads like a cancer there, lowering surrounding property value, fracturing neighborhoods and draining city resources.

I intend to visualize this problem. I will map each City-owned vacant lot and then travel to photograph it.  The images will be taken with a wide angle to encompass as much of the lot and it’s surroundings as possible. The photos would be shot from eye level so the viewers may easily place themselves in the location. The resulting photographs would appear interchangeable; the differences between each one would only be detectable in the details.