American Places book with an essay by Liz Wells
Image Selections

American Places Book Cover
© 2021 Oscar Palacio
About the Project
“This book contains elegantly composed images depicting details of the landscapes we build, modify, occupy, and share. The images frame literal and incidental memorials that are presented as monuments, commemorating a fraught and often tragic national history.”
-Matt Coolidge, Founder/Director, The Center for Land Use Interpretation
“It is said that civilization started with the first man building a fence around his property and others accepting his claim. In American Places we see fences, physical and symbolic, behind which America seems to hide its history, so we need the brilliant eye of an outsider like Oscar Palacio to reveal those histories to us.”
-Theo Baart and Cary Markerink, artists

Sidewalk, Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, 2010

Memorial, Wounded Knee, SD, 2009

Fence, Gettysburg National Military Park, PA, 2008

Mount Rushmore, SD, 2009

Salem Witch Memorial, Salem, MA, 2007

Concrete Wall, 2003

Sidewalk Garden, 2002

Cemetery Entrance, Manzanar, CA, 2008

Suspended Log, 2005

Window and Stairs, NOLA, 2002

Memorial, Wounded Knee, SD, 2009

Erie Canal, Syracuse, NY, 2008

Chopped Tree, 2001

Reinforcing Bars, Hoover Dam, NV, 2006

Obelisk, Plymouth, MA 2007

Cannon, Gettysburg National Military Park, PA, 2008

Grass over Asphalt, 2002

Parking Lot, Hoover Dam, NV, 2006

Frederick Douglass House Site, Rochester, NY, 2008

Banister, 2002

Outdoor Table, 2002

Harriet Tubman Gravestone, Auburn, NY, 2008

Erie Canal, Syracuse, NY, 2008
Erie Canal, Syracuse, NY, 2008

Tech Area 21, Los Alamos, NM, 2010

White Fence, 2002

Entrance, Manzanar, CA, 2008

Prefabricated Stairs, 2004

Paths, 2003

Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, MA 2007

Concrete Stump, Gettysburg National Military Park, PA, 2008

Back Porch, 2005

Chain, 2005

Confederate Memorial, Gettysburg National Military Park, PA, 2008
