Vanishing From View: Images of North Carolina’s Rural Landscape

A longtime journalist, photographer Scott Sharpe has made a personal project of documenting the state’s farming and small-town communities.
by Ayn-Monique Klahre | photography by Scott Sharpe

“Martin Isolation,” in Martin or Edgecombe County. “The sky was so amazing!” says photographer Scott Sharpe, who notes that this home was likely recently used for migrant labor.

Over the last two years Scott Sharpe, the director of multimedia and photography at The News & Observer, has been workin on a side project called “All But Forgotten NC.” Part art, part journalism, it’s a photographic ode to North Carolina’s farming and small-town communities. “The old rural landscape is disappearing very quickly,” he says. “I used to drive all around the state as a photographer, always in a hurry. I’d see things and think, I’ll take a picture the next time I’m there. But when I’d go back, it’d be gone.”

The project has roots in a weekly photo feature called “Tar Heel Scenes” that ran in the N&O starting in the mid-1980s, when Sharpe was a staff photographer. The feature has long since been discontinued, but a few years ago, Sharpe was on assignment for a story about chicken farming and had a couple hours to kill. “I drove around and made a few frames. That lit the fire,” Sharpe says. Since then, he estimates that he’s probably taken 1,000 to 2,000 photos, showcasing many of them on his Instagram account, All But Forgotten NC. “I don’t shoot a lot of photos in each spot — the more I shoot, the more time I’ll have to spend editing, and that gets to be work,” he says. “This is meant to be my escape from work.”

“Bent by Time,” Wayne or Greene County. “The light was getting really low and rich when I saw this home I loved the remnant of the chimney,” he says.

Sharpe is influenced by the Works Progress Administration photographers of the 1930s and ‘40s, whose simple compositions gave an honest account of daily life. Similarly, “the places I photograph were hard places to live, harder than most of us can imagine. There are very few degrees of separation between the times of slavery and Jim Crow and share-cropping, between cotton and tobacco,” he says. “I never want to be perceived as romanticizing places built on this horrible history, and I never want to make light of where somebody lives.”

To take his photos, Sharpe often sets out on a Sunday morning, when there’s less traffic (“Plus, nobody’s hunting on Sunday morning,” he says). He’ll start driving with a place in mind, always using a paper map as his guide. “Often I never get there! I’ll wonder what’s down one road, or miss a turn and find a beautiful situation,” he says. “Texture and light are the two things I see first — old wood, paint, rust — then I’ll see how a structure fits into the landscape, and how the background adds to the scene.”

A drawback of this wandering approach is that Sharpe often can’t remember exactly where he took the photo. “But that’s OK, too,” he says. “There’s a tremendous amount of vandalism and architectural theft that happens in these buildings, and I don’t want to share enough information to promote that.” Through his photographs, Sharpe hopes that folks will remember North Carolina’s history and agricultural roots. “None of these places are more than two hours from Raleigh. It’s amazing how different the world is even in eastern Wake County,” he says. “The past is right next door.”

“Franklin Barns, Franklin County. “I love the light, shadow and texture on these two barns,” he says.

“Made by Hand from the Land,” Johnston County. This photo was the result of missing a turn. “Think about how much work it took to build that chimney,” he says.

Drip Dry,” Martin or Edgecombe County. “I love chairs and benches and work clothes, plus that Queen Anne Victorian architectural detail you don’t see much these days,” he says. “I stopped by a few weeks later and they were gone.”

“Aging with Grace,” Franklin County.

“Red Guards,” Johnston County. “This househad been well taken care of, but was completely surrounded by subdivisions,” he says. “It must have been the palace of the community, back in the day.”

“Three Kings,” Wayne County.

“Church,” Franklin County. “I’ve photographed it several times; this time the light was very eerie,” Sharpe says.

“Rapture in a Cotton Field,” Martin County. This is a mowed-out portion of a field, the church is maybe 4 feet tall,” he says.

“Pender,” near Yanceyville. The grocery, a little northeast of Chapel Hill, was at one point a post office.

“Green Truck,” Randolph County. Sharpe saw this truck at a salvage yard on Highway 64.

“Path to Prosperity,” Martin or Edgecombe County. “I especially loved the trees and the ruts in the road,” he says.

“Twins,” location unknown.They were very curious! I was their entertainment for the day.”

This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.