A little background to place my talk in a context of places: I grew up in Kansas, then moved to Boston after college. I considered Boston to be a "real" place in comparison with where I came from. It had a lot more meaning, I thought, and history. I loved living here and did so for eight years. I practiced as an architect for six years here, then went to the GSD for two. Then, in a decisive career move in 1993, we moved to rural Mississippi for my wife (also an architect) to teach at Mississippi State. I had little "legitimate" work, so I spent my first year or two in Mississippi driving around roads like this, and taking color photographs of the place as a way of coming to know it.