Scanscape:

On first glance, this book seems to be a collection of photographs of a carefully crafted scale models for a tract housing developments. Looking closer, however, the barren fields, hills topped with cows and power lines, waterfalls and fountains, and sections of half-completed houses indicate that indeed these are real places where real people live. Yet the feeling of its being a model persists. It's uncanny. Documenting the gated communities that have begun to sprawl into peripheral areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles (and for that matter, identical developments all over the U.S.), German photographer Marc Rader shot these images in such a way that the foreground and background are mashed together, giving the sensation that these are photographs of miniatures. These images invite repeated inspection into the detailed minutia of fabricated living environments, and are a powerful, thought-provoking commentary on these artificial, fenced-in housing divisions. Scanscape also includesan essay by Elizabeth McNeil wherein she poses questions to members of these communities, an essay by Peter Marcuse titled "Commodifying the Garden of Eden", and telling photos of assorted trappings and signage.Elizabeth McNeil is the author of 'Scanscape:', published 2000 under ISBN 9788489698666 and ISBN 848969866X.