2007 Portfolio Prize Runner Up: Richard Gilles

Photographed in California, Richard Gilles’s panoramic images of trailers that have been put to use as dwellings offer quiet commentary on contemporary rootlessness. These mobile homes—whether literally mobile or not—offer a somewhat sheltered alternative to life on the street. Parked in leftover spaces that range from banal suburban to gritty industrial or wide-open wasteland, these are habitations on the edge of society, with inhabitants presumably on the brink of homelessness.

Recalling the willful neutrality of the New Topographics and New Color photographs of the 1970s and ’80s, Gilles’s images record potentially poignant scenes without sentimentality. Each vehicle has its own distinctive identity, which Gilles captures without offering any glimpse of the occupants or invading their precarious privacy. What he does reveal, indirectly, is the prevalence of such accommodations—having seen his series, I now spot similar shelters in every city I visit. And that is part of the photographer’s purpose in making these pictures: “There is a phenomenon in our society that for the most part goes unnoticed: In our seemingly abundant society, the almost homeless find themselves living in vehicles. . . . Do these voyagers have a destination or is it a perpetual, nomadic journey? Has their vehicle become a substitute for a fixed address or a tool for a pilgrimage? Is there meaning to their movement? My intention is not to provide the viewer with answers, but for the images to serve as a catalyst for questions, investigation, and awareness.”

Richard Gilles earned a BA in fine arts from San Francisco State University and has lived in the Bay Area. He now lives and works in Folsom, California. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions throughout the United States; Almost Home-Less: A Photographic Exploration was shown at Axis Gallery, Sacramento, California, in February 2007.