Boom/Bust by Josef Jacques

Issue 28

Boom/Bust are images of Merced California. Merced is the culmination of the booms and subsequent busts that have been the center of this city's history. In making these images, I am using the many languages of photography to show the remnants of these incarnations, where they fit in history, and construct stories. These stories are not necessarily in the images but between them, and are about this specific place but also about the promise of California and the American dream, the realities of those dreams and the hope the created them and propels the city forward. In the many stories that are Merced, there are the four economic iterations that I have chose to focus on, that of the railtown, the farmtown, the roadside town, and the collegetown. Of course this is people's hometown, and though it is not mine, it is my mothers. Using family stories, folklore, newspapers, and local and state archives as source material, I strive to speak to the hope that exists and look to the next Merced.

Josef Jacques is a San Francisco, CA based artist.
To see more of Josef's work, please visit his website.