In 2011, the United States Postal Service announced 3,653 rural post office would close — with a disproportionate number located in the South.
The rural post office serves as a symbolic town center. More concretely, its location and address secures a ZIP code for the surrounding community. The post office embodies the numerical identity of place: without its presence in the landscape, a local ZIP code is lost.
These photographs were made in rural communities in the South impacted by PostPlan legislation and facing further marginalization. Shot on 4x5” sheet film, the resulting work broadly reflects on analog traditions, place and identity, distance and communication in rural America.
