Gallery: Erieville

Erieville: The Home of Poet W. D. Snodgrass

The photographs of this series were made during visits between 1977 and 1987. The old farm house is situated on a non-operating farm in Erieville, New York, 20 miles or so outside of Syracuse, New York.

Upon seeing some of the early images, my brother wrote: “These pictures you took in our house simply flattened us – you were lumphing about so nonchalantly we had no idea you were doing anything like that…especially that scarecrow – skeleton – Death behind the chair and the loony perspective lines. I got to wondering, is my house really that frightening???”

Elsewhere, the poet writes in A Locked House:

As we drove back, crossing the hill,
The house still
Hidden in the trees, I always thought –
A fool’s fear – that it might have caught
Fire, someone could have broken in.
As if things must have been
Too good here. Still, we always found
It locked tight, safe and sound….

The photographs are approximately 10” x 10” carbon-pigment images, printed on 13” x 17” archival Somerset Velvet unenhanced watercolor paper.