Photos from the gated community where Romney made the 47 percent remarks

Photos From the Gated Community Where Romney Made His 47 Percent Remarks

Photos From the Gated Community Where Romney Made His 47 Percent Remarks

Behold
The Photo Blog
Oct. 19 2012 11:35 AM

Photos From the Gated Community Where Romney Made His 47 Percent Remarks

Behold is Slate's brand new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.

Snakebird perched on a duck decoy in the gated community where Romney made his 47 percent remarks.
Snakebird perched on a duck decoy in the gated community where Romney made his 47 percent remarks.

Zoe Strauss/Magnum Photos.

Above and below are photos of the gated community in Boca Raton, Fla. where Romney was caught on tape making his 47 percent comments.

Boca Raton community where Romney made 47 percent remarks. Magnum Postcards from America.
Security booth at the entrance to the gated community

Zoe Strauss/Magnum Photos

Just after those unforgettable words landed in the news media last month, photographer Zoe Strauss headed to Florida as part of a Magnum group project and began exploring the physical context for those comments to donors. Strauss, who is the newest photographer to have joined Magnum, is known for her portraits of everyday America, most famously presented in a 10-year series of exhibitions under a section of I-95 in Philadelphia.

A man placing a Romney/Ryan sign on a median outside a gated community close to where Romney made his 47 percent remarks. Postcards from America
A man placing a Romney/Ryan sign on a median outside a nearby gated community

Zoe Strauss/Magnum Photos.

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These Florida photos are part of Magnum’s Postcards from America project, a group journey across the United States in the year leading up to the election. Thus far, photographers have driven from Texas to California in an RV and spent several weeks in Rochester, N.Y. Throughout the month of October, 12 photographers are gathering their observations about what has been and will be one of the key states in presidential elections.

Not my Problem, Magnum Postcards from America
This highway overpass is very close to the development where Romney attended that unforgettable Boca fundraiser. Someone painted "not my problem" on the highway overpass.

Zeo Strauss/Magnum Photos.

No one can or should make claims to creating a definitive document of this strange and complicated place. So, conceptually, the group decided to take their cues from the great tradition of the humble postcard. Walker Evans, the great documentary photographer, was a devoted collector of postcards. In an essay on his collection, he wrote of the cards: “They arrived from the next town up the line, or from across the continent, inscribed for all to see: ‘Your Ma and I stopped at this hotel before you were ever heard of,” or, shamelessly: “Well if she doesn’t care any more than that I don’t either. See you Tues.’” Glimpses of life—brief observations—at once personal and shared.

You can see additional work from the Magnum Postcards From America project on this Tumblr.

Previous Magnum Photo Features on Behold

Behold is Slate's brand new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.

Kate Phillips creates the Magnum Today’s Pictures feature for Slate.