LOST: Photographs of Old Forge

I grew up in Old Forge, a small coal-mining town situated along the Lackawanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania with a population of between six and twelve thousand people, depending on the decade and century, most of whom were Italian immigrants or first-generation offspring. I was raised in a large extended Italian family bound by strong cultural ties and ethnic identity. Childhood memories of my hometown are faint. I have been returning to Old Forge re-discovering a town and a life I thought I knew. Would I remember anyone? Would the streets, shops, and houses reveal an understanding of the town? Or would I uncover a completely different reality than I remember.

The first time I walked around the town, camera in hand with the intent of making pictures, I noticed immediately how stark, abandoned, manicured, and strange it seemed to me. Houses, lawns, public parks were clean, manicured, in perfect order, an attempt to evoke a semblance of life. However, no one was on the streets or porches; yards were empty even though it was summer; playgrounds, empty lots, and shops were vacant, devoid of children laughing or teenagers ‘hanging out’.

It is a town struggling in the wake of a defunct coal-mining industry fifty years ago. The municipality and surrounding communities of Lackawanna County have tried numerous times to revitalize the economy over the years with banking and information systems industries, tourism, and casinos, but with no luck. Because of its history of predominantly immigrant populations laboring in dangerous, harsh, and unhealthy coalmines, low percentages of pursuing higher education compared to the national average, and strong religious traditions, many residents see themselves as “ignorant” and powerless. This, many believe, is the reason that no other industry was able to take hold.

I am photographing the town and people of Old Forge recognizing that its residents have little to hope for yet proud of their identity, and now must adjust to a changing population and distillation of immigrant culture they brought with them.