Joni Sternbach's series Promise Land highlights decaying houses peek out from behind branches, creepers, trees and water. These abandoned homes in the rural east end of Long Island, (a storied retreat for the wealthy of New York, are embedded in the natural world that threatens to overtake them.

The series depicts the demise and destruction of homes on the eastern end of Long Island. It is done in a documentary style and the body of work addresses a local view (Sternbach lives in the same area of Long Island) on the effect of the current economic crisis on real estate, the landscape, and the perception of home.

Sternbach says:

It’s kind of mind blowing to see how simple a life they lived here compared to what this area has become. For me, the structures I’ve been photographing have become a symbol of the past. Home, the American Dream as we once knew it. People don’t build or even live like this anymore. Middle class values have been replaced by big bucks. When I first started shooting I called the project “Un Real-Estate,” because the architecture is photographed straight on, dead pan style, like you’d expect to see in a realtors office, except the houses are not in livable condition.