Fine Art nominee

As icons of the original "big screen" Hollywood obsession, these large
drive-in theater screens from the Southeast U.S. stand like a recent
cultural relic. Each screen was host to thousands of screenings over
the years, marrying the American public's love of the car and outdoor
gatherings. Vegetation now encroaches on each screen as they lose
audiences and appeal due to proliferation of individual digital screens
today and instant movie delivery. These composite photos are very
large format to mirror the size of the original screens. The high-
resolution detail is created by the very cameras that forced these
celluloid projection screens to become obsolete. The detail shows the
deterioration of the screens and the exuberant regrowth of previously
maintained vegetation.

Casey Lance Brown’s creative output focuses on revealing the often perverse ways in which human systems use, divide up, and adapt to the planet’s surface. All photography is completed as a digital composite resulting in very large format, expansive scenography. As a Landscape Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Brown utilized mappings and large-format photography to reveal the Roman villa system as the original form of real-estate speculation. His latest series explores the disappearing drive-ins of the southeastern U.S.