Lily, South Dakota. The focus of my sense of place project. A place that many people have never heard of. A place near and dear to my heart. A town with heart and character. The town of my namesake. Lily Tobin in Lily, South Dakota. A series.
South Dakota is built on rural communities, many of them being former railroad towns, and Lily, South Dakota is no different. The town was founded in 1889 as a result of the railroad and was dissolved in 2017 as a result of the town’s dilapidation and its lack of population. To many, it is just another run down rural town that no longer exists, but to me it was an opportunity to capture the likeness of a location that is directly intertwined with myself.
Without the Lily sign on the side of Highway 12, my mother driving to and from college would not have come to the conclusion that is what she wanted to name her daughter. Without that revelation, I would not have chosen to visit the dissolved town during the spring break of my freshman year of college. This series explores the importance of allowing moments to fall into place and is a testament to how things can change over the years.
Lily, South Dakota juxtaposes the past and the present. In parts of the town it felt as though I had entered a time warp and in others it felt like I was in a modern community. Through my images I tried to encapsulate the old town with a sense of modernity mixed into it. My process was centered around photographing the oddities and uniqueness of the town to create a sense of place that embodied my namesake.
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