You Look Pretty Today!
A collage of the 20 postcards included in the book.
“YOU LOOK PRETTY TODAY!” A collection of photo postcards by Howie Sneider. Colored and assembled 2023-24 at an artist residency on Prudence Island, RI.
Decommissioned military sites are an un-quiet deal with nature, destined to provide future generations with a new ecology to explore and new hazards to encounter. The hulking masses of these formidable structures stand as artifacts to the industrialization, dehumanization, and acceleration of war in the 20th Century. They offer a potent view of the post-apocalyptic, and a chance to experience the burgeoning seeds of a post-human epoch.
Modern artillery advances have outpaced fortification, so much so that the vast majority of these sites were considered strategically obsolete before they ever became operational. They are preserved and maintained as passive deterrents and historic ruins, or they are allowed to re-wild.
Special thanks to the Naragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Prudence Island Residency, and to all of the friends, family and adventurers that have explored with me over these past 25 years.