Lines in the Dirt

• Photographer
  Rebecca Webb

his series is part of a larger body of work addressing identity as it relates to land ownership, landscape, and mortality. In 2014, my then seventy-seven year old father purchased 44 acres of undeveloped and pristine forested land in Western Massachusetts, to be divided between himself and his children. Never having owned a home or any real estate until now, my father’s legacy has inspired me to philosophically and visually explore what it means to own land. What does it really mean to “own” land? Why does laying claim to a piece of earth seem to fulfill a primal urge? Why do we allow a person to draw lines in the dirt and have complete control over what goes on inside those boundaries? The answers to these questions most likely lie in evolutionary biology and behavioral economics, but the concerns of this work focus on an abstract notion of owning land, especially as this land is so intertwined with my father and his legacy.