AA alum and former tutor Noah Gotlib has received a Graham Foundation Grant for the project Crumbling Land.

Crumbling Land studies ‘managed retreat’ – the intentional abandonment of land and infrastructure due to climate change – and its undermining of traditional conceptions of wilderness, property and frontiers in North American culture. With insufficient funds to maintain existing infrastructure to protect vulnerable settlements as climate change pressures mount, local governments across North America are unpaving roads, instituting buyback programs for flood-prone communities and leaving condemned bridges unrepaired. Through photography and film of communities undergoing managed retreat, Crumbling Land illustrates climate change’s transformation of the views and cultural perception of the North American landscape.

Image: Buy-out site in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Photo by Noah Gotlib.