Inspiration comes from many places for my 7-Continent AB

I believe I'm on a roll with my 7 Continent altered book. 


Back sometime around September or October, I was out with my friend Sally when we stumbled into this construction zone.

A new bypass is being built in our area,

and my thoughts quickly went to my 7 Continents altered book.  I was so glad I had my good camera with me at the time.

It's quite obvious this was taken in warmer times,

because there was obviously no snow on the ground, as there was up until a few days ago.

I kept snapping away, thinking I might use some of the better photos

in a spread that reminded me of a TV show I had seen on Hulu that, at the time, was being aired on the FX network,

which is aptly called

"The Bridge."  In case you aren't familiar with the show, the bridge, which is short for Bridge of the Americas, is the scene of the first grisly murder of two women, placed together to look like one.  One half is from one side of the bridge, the other half is from the other side of the bridge.

Appropriately, the center of the bridge is the dividing line between El Paso, Texas (TX) and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  I could not believe my fortune when I was sifting through some postcards and found these.  Since I don't like to use my printer for photos, these postcards were quite fortuitous. This spread will represent part of my North America section.

You can even see the bridge in the background, which actually contains two bridges with six lanes per side, and the only toll free bridge joining these two cities.

I should have taken a close up of the lady I cut and glued to the tag I found in my stash that reminded me of the Texas star.  Other symbolism relates to the crosses that are at the border on the Juarez side.  They signify the young women who are missing from that area.  The gist of the show is that two detectives, one from El Paso and one from Juarez, must work together to find a serial killer who kills victims on both sides of the border.

I never thought I would be inspired to make these types of spreads in my 7 Continents AB.  But I have found this seems more meaningful to me than trying to focus on the absolute beauty and purity of a country or continent, as I did with my tip-ins and first spreads I made before the book fell apart.

For this spread I used two postcards, two flags taken from a roll like the ones I used in my Sochi spread that open and show various images (stars under US and crosses under Mexico) I placed inside (sorry, they can't be scanned open), ink pens used to make the crosses on the map, staples, part of a tag, and a background from part of a city map.

What is your take on the way this 7 Continent AB project is headed?  Is it too gritty?  Too far from what you would think of when you think 7 continents?  Any and all comments are welcome.