Forgotten Pieces of Georgia
Donation protected
Help me document abandoned small business buildings throughout Georgia that now sit decaying to the mists of time!
The Project:
I started this project as a photographer in Georgia. I was out driving back roads one weekend looking for some inspiration and came upon Sparta, Ga in Hancock County.
This small city southeast of Georgia was once a prosperous part of Georgia's cotton industry. After the arrival of the boll weevil in the 1920s the cotton industry was decimated.
When the cotton industry died out, a Furniture company bought the old Sparta cotton warehouse and remodeled it as Sparta Furniture Company. The company made table and other furniture legs and was in business for a few decades under different owners before closing in 2001.
During it's years of prosperity, Sparta had 37 small businesses up and down Broad Street. After the loss of the factory, the largest single non-governmental employer in the city, many of the residents moved to Macon, Augusta and Atlanta to find work.
With the exodus of residents, the small businesses struggled to stay afloat until today only around 9 remain and many of those are only open a few days a week.
As I captured these abandoned buildings in Sparta sitting empty and decaying, some totally falling apart, my project Forgotten Pieces of Georgia started to form.
My goal with this project is to document as many of these buildings in all 159 counties in Georgia, shooting stills and also doing mini-documentaries on each county as well. I plan to eventually release the photos as a book with as much history on each and their towns and counties as I can research.
The funds raised here will be used for expenses to film each county's mini-documentary. These films will be release via the Forgotten Pieces of Georgia YouTube channel.
If there is enough interest I may turn the stills into a phone book, stay tuned on that idea.
Please donate!
Help me document the past
and bring these old buildings
some new life in history and
hopefully preservation!
Thank You!!
The Project:
I started this project as a photographer in Georgia. I was out driving back roads one weekend looking for some inspiration and came upon Sparta, Ga in Hancock County.
This small city southeast of Georgia was once a prosperous part of Georgia's cotton industry. After the arrival of the boll weevil in the 1920s the cotton industry was decimated.
When the cotton industry died out, a Furniture company bought the old Sparta cotton warehouse and remodeled it as Sparta Furniture Company. The company made table and other furniture legs and was in business for a few decades under different owners before closing in 2001.
During it's years of prosperity, Sparta had 37 small businesses up and down Broad Street. After the loss of the factory, the largest single non-governmental employer in the city, many of the residents moved to Macon, Augusta and Atlanta to find work.
With the exodus of residents, the small businesses struggled to stay afloat until today only around 9 remain and many of those are only open a few days a week.
As I captured these abandoned buildings in Sparta sitting empty and decaying, some totally falling apart, my project Forgotten Pieces of Georgia started to form.
My goal with this project is to document as many of these buildings in all 159 counties in Georgia, shooting stills and also doing mini-documentaries on each county as well. I plan to eventually release the photos as a book with as much history on each and their towns and counties as I can research.
The funds raised here will be used for expenses to film each county's mini-documentary. These films will be release via the Forgotten Pieces of Georgia YouTube channel.
If there is enough interest I may turn the stills into a phone book, stay tuned on that idea.
Please donate!
Help me document the past
and bring these old buildings
some new life in history and
hopefully preservation!
Thank You!!
Organizer
Liam Douglas
Organizer
Austell, GA
