Centralia, 2004

Centralia was a bustling mining town in the heart of Pennsylvania's coal region, until 1961 when the coal mines underneath Centralia caught fire when a local resident was burning garbage.

That fire continues to burn to this day.

The government refused to pay to extinguish the fires, and evacuated the residents of Centralia. But a handful of people remain--living atop a fiery earth that oozes plumes of smoke and sulfur. Those residents who stay continue to cling to what's left of their town, reluctant to give to the government what the government refused to save for them over 40 years ago.

There are eight prints in the first series of this continuing project.