✨ I’m Laura — photographer, storyteller, genealogist & preservationist. I document forgotten America: abandoned places, ghost towns, cemeteries, pioneer trails & their stories. If you believe our country’s history is worth preserving, come wander the backroads with me. 🇺🇸

Tomorrow at 3 PM, I’ll be teaching a cemetery preservation workshop at Sinking Spring Cemetery in Abingdon, Virginia, as part of the town’s four-day LibertyFest 250th celebration, running Thursday through Sunday! 🇺🇸 We’ll be learning proper headstone cleaning and preservation techniques in one of Abingdon’s oldest historic cemeteries. If you’re in the area, come see me! I’ll be set up right next to the Parson Cummings Cabin, beside the DAR marker. 🇺🇸

It’s one thing to know it’s coming. It’s another thing to finally hold it in your hands. ❤️ The Fall 2026 edition of Front Porch Life Magazine arrived, and they gave me 18 whole pages to tell the story behind Diary of Abandonment…the places I’ve photographed, the history I’ve chased, and the work that has grown from more than a decade of documenting the things we leave behind. It’s pretty awesome flipping through these pages and seeing years of my work in print. Here’s a little unboxing and my first look at the finished magazine. I’m incredibly grateful to Front Porch Life for giving my story this much space and treating my work so beautifully. ❤️

Tomorrow at 3pm I’ll be teaching a cemetery preservation workshop at the historic Sinking Spring Cemetery in Abingdon, Virginia. Come see me!

I thought this looked fun, so I tried it myself. Put your photo in ChatGPT and say, Based only on this photo, put me on the tv show I look like I belong on and generate an image.

Exploring in NC📍

Exploring in Utah📍

Trying my red light therapy mask on my shoulder to see if it’ll help speed up the healing process. At the very least, my shoulder is going to come out of rehab looking ten years younger. 😆🤷🏻‍♀️

Hahaha the better to scrub the headstones with

Cleaning headstones is fun. Even better when you get to meet the descendants (on the left) and learn about their family.

When you’re down one arm, but the other one still knows how to scrub.

Sunday worship

The Chapel of Peace, built in the 1800s.

Great video. Thanks for sharing

It’s Thirsty Thursday. Support your local raw milk dealers.

Thank you! It’s fun to unlock a new skill you didn’t know you had. :)

When you watch a video and it looks a bit blurry, click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner, click on quality, and adjust it to the highest setting.