Wedgewood is a photo essay I worked on as a student in the Truth With A Camera Workshop in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 2004, I documented the final days of Wedgewood Mobile Home Park, a community of 383 homes and approximately 900 residents. Developers L.M. Sandler and Sons purchased the property for $12 million and issued eviction notices, giving residents five months to leave. Residents who were able to leave within the first two months received $1,000 in relocation assistance, with the amount decreasing for those who remained longer. Many residents had invested their life savings in their homes, while some aging mobile homes were no longer structurally sound enough to be relocated. This essay focuses on the residents who refused to leave and remained as their community was dismantled around them, documenting the people, homes, and personal impact of displacement in the name of redevelopment.
Wedgewood Mobile Home Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia, 2004
The man learned about his eviction while on deployment.
The home owner decided to demolish his own home instead of having to pay someone do it for him.
Suffering from COPD and too sick to move a resident spent her day keeping cool under her old swamp cooler.
Abigail Palmer with her mother. 2004