Main Street

Brandon Sward

Main Street vs. Wall Street. Uttered often enough that we might have begun to take it for granted. Words that drip off the lips of politicians and pundits to stress the distance between the image of “America” and its reality, between the world of greasy investment bankers and the bare knuckles of an ever-dwindling middle class. Like all stereotypes, this distinction is indeed rooted in something real. Travel to any of a thousand towns across the Great Middle of this country and find stretches of pockmarked asphalt that literally bear this name, pulled across struggling economies like black taffy. These photos represent just one example of such strips, representing perhaps the last gasps of our idea of a certain kind of life, a certain kind of community, a certain kind of hope.