Striking, Strange Portraits of California Trailer Park Residents

By Alison Nastasi

Aug. 10, 2014

Photographer David Waldorf once captured a rare portrait of David Lynch in his private sanctuary, the “think room.” There’s certainly something Lynchian about his photos of trailer park residents in Sonoma, California. One surreal snapshot reveals a grim bride in a gown worthy of the 1980s. She holds hands with her bare-chested husband (perhaps), both lit by the flames of a roaring barbecue. It is American Gothic at its strangest — and it could easily be a photo taken at Twin Peaks’ Fat Trout Trailer Park. There are proud men slick with sweat, sticking to vinyl car seats. Residents peer from windows disapprovingly. A family of four in an overstuffed bedroom surrounds a young boy whose limbs are covered in dirty bandages. It’s the details of Waldorf’s portraits that quietly creep up on you. He aims to “to capture the truth in people’s eyes” — and these eyes don’t lie.

Photo credit: David Waldorf