Sometimes, a place is lucky: it gets tied with the context of violence, but escapes having violence happen within it — thus spared the scathing that some receive by strategic consideration, and some by simply being where the violence “took place”. Still, they were chosen: in an act of topological sacrifice, the geography of these places singled them out as the sites where, should violence happen, it will commence, on the unforeseeable scale that be. And just as a history of violence is ever present in a history of a place, so is this choosing
“Unscathed” is a short series on the repurposed areas of military bases, converted into playgrounds, residential housing and natural preserves. It was shot at Floyd Bennett field and Fort Tilden, in Long Island, New York.