Donald J Trump State Park

From the Artist: In the month after the election, I photographed Donald J. Trump State Park. This image is a selection from that work, titled November 2020. Donald J. Trump State Park is the product of a failed development plan by the Trump Organization, which purchased over four hundred acres in northern Westchester and southern Putnam with the intent of building two eighteen-hole golf courses. Finding the project stymied by environmental restrictions and permitting requirements, Trump donated the properties to the state of New York in 2006, claiming a $100 million dollar value for his $2 million dollar investment and generating a $26 million dollar tax write-off.

The land is now maintained by the state as a "passive" park, consisting mainly of second growth forests covering old farmland. Curiously, the foundations of an old estate rest in one corner of the property. Along with the stone walls built by the farmers, it is the only evidence of the land's prior use. With no money available for its improvement, the park offers no amenities or attractions beyond a few rudimentary trails. Occasional views of the Hudson Highlands are obscured by walls of invasive plants, whose thorny stems twine about the dilapidated trees.

Walking through this landscape that had once been civilized, then returned to the wild, I could not help but reflect on the ways that my life and the life of our nation have been disrupted by this presidency. It has been a grim time, like four years of late autumn.