Airport Blvd
Capturing the Changing Landscape of Austin’s Airport Boulevard
Published with the Texas Observer.
During the very early days of the pandemic, I set out to capture Airport Boulevard, the 6.6 miles of pavement that intersects a large swath of greater East Austin. The historic street passes through a mixed-use development that once was the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, and across I-35 where it comes to an end.
It’s one of many traffic corridors in a sprawling city, in which access to a mode of transportation becomes a prerequisite to employment, food, health care, education, and entertainment.
As the city grapples with Covid-19, the landscape that exists along Airport Boulevard reveals both the shared and divergent experiences of the communities that live and work along this segmented strip of pavement. Slowing down to examine this diverse landscape, the structures that house us took on elevated importance as they become a microcosm for each individual’s experience of this pandemic.
