Alexa Cushing

Alexa Cushing is a photographer based out of Boston, MA. She has recently graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, earning a BFA in Photography. Alexa travels by car and makes work about the rural New England area where she lives. She focuses on extracting a sense of magic from the everyday landscape, monumentalizing an otherwise dim backdrop. Alexa’s work has been exhibited at various locations around Massachusetts, as well as several online and print publications.


Deer Leg, Middleboro, 2018


Torn Fence, Brockton, 2017


Floating Pizza Box, Abington, 2018

Seeing Is Believing!

Growing up in rural New England, I have spent time observing a place that has been carved out by the impacts of passing time, harsh weather, and human presence. Relics of what has once existed are on display, revealing a tension that is tangled between the land and its current inhabitants. The residual energy of the past remains as a constant throughout the area— a place that was once defined by its working-class presence has grown to be fractured, leaving the possibility for something new to occur in its place. It becomes clear that there is an unmistakable value to a landscape that has succumbed to its own degradation.

It is within the subject matter’s ability to transcend its bleak presence and become a sight of its own that I am compelled to photograph. I am interested in how the ordinary and often innocuous rural New England landscape can become remarkable through its destruction. It is possible for an otherwise dim backdrop to be monumentalized and framed by a sense of significance that before did not exist. Extracting this sense of magic from the everyday realm dignifies a place that otherwise may fall victim to erasure.


Fallen Tree on Volvo, Abington, 2018


Burned Tree, Brockton, 2018


Foggy Lake, Abington, 2017


Bo Looking Outside, Middleboro, 2018


Weymouth Air Base, Weymouth, 2017


Shattered Car Windshield, Plympton, 2017


Auto Repair, West Bridgewater, 2017


Frozen Sprinker Water, Dighton, 2017


School Buses, Lakeville, 2016


Foggy House at Night, Weymouth, 2017


Morning Light, Middleboro, 2018


Rusty Tree, Bridgewater, 2018


Leaves in Baseball Field Fence, Abington, 2018


Missing Dentist Office Sign, Abington, 2018


Seeing Is Believing!, Randolph, 2018


Snow Blower Headlights, Middleboro, 2018


Crab Apples, Abington, 2017

To view more of Alexa Cushing’s work please visit her website.