Landscape of Progress documents the uneasy transition of raw, undeveloped suburban land into a regional center of commerce. For the past four years I have been exploring an area in suburban Minneapolis that is in the midst of being stripped, dug up and flattened in preparation for construction. The landscape there is one of intent on a vast scale. A drive down the main thoroughfare here drives this point home: one side of the road is a converging sea of themed architecture in various stages of completion, while the opposite side is a vista of endless mountains of dirt, rock and sand being carved out of the earth. This is a raw, almost monochromatic landscape that seems to change day by day at the hands of the machinery that is slowly disemboweling it. A hike into it could be a trip to Mars, for the look it all. Once in there, your gut can feel the brute physical forces that are being imposed upon the land to shape it to its commercial uses. It is this sense of quiet violence and beauty, and my emotional reaction to it that is at the core of my photographs. The physical transformation of this land is symbolic of the underlying social and economic forces that drive the process of urban sprawl. This urban growth is changing both the physical and political landscapes of North America as it quietly eats away at open spaces and rural farms around our cities. Instead of taking a dogmatic approach with this project by condemning urban sprawl, I would rather inspire awareness of the process and help to pose questions that development of this magnitude raises.