Unreal Estate
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993)

"The structures I photograph are forsaken, deserted," writes Robert de Gast. "No further energies are to be expended on them, not even the energy to tear them down. Often a wreck of a building squats in the middle of a field, forcing a farmer to make tortured and elaborate turns when plowing his field. It would be so much easier to burn the house or barn—in a few minutes the land would be cleared. But it isn't so simple."
In this book, the photographs of Robert de Gast reveal what "isn't so simple" about the abandoned buildings so common on the Chesapeake's Eastern Shore. His striking color photographs of ghostly houses and weathered details illustrate the powerful hold architecture has on us, even when a building no longer serves its purpose.
De Gast finds a different kind of wealth in the region. He is drawn to places named Mutton Hunk and Frogstool, Clam and Oyster, Chiconteague and Kiptopeke. His photographs are not of people, but they are full of human feeling. They evoke mystery and romance, compassion and nostalgia. Here people lived and dreamed—and left behind familiar shapes that time and nature now alter and reclaim.