“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All
cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim.”
- Christopher Morley

“A race preserves its vigor so long as it harbours
a real contrast between what has been and what
may be, and so long as it is nerved by the vigour
to adventure beyond the safeties of the past.
Without adventure, civilization is in full decay.”
- Alfred North Whitehead

Once the textile capital of the world one hundred
years ago, Fall River, Massachusetts today
resembles a ghost town. As the textile industry
left for cheaper labor south and overseas, Fall
River had moved too slow in replacing its economic
engine, as witnessed by the city’s crumbling
infrastructure, high unemployment and
dwindling population.

With the city in strife, the belief boasted by a
political-economic culture that Fall River is a
“great city,” stands in contrast to the For Lease
signs displayed for months, even years, in empty
storefront windows.

This photo essay is a direct response to that
belief. Fall River is a documentation of what
has become of a proud, close-knit city facing an
uncertain future.