© Annette LeMay Burke

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Award-winning photographer Annette LeMay Burke first stumbled upon a cell phone tower masquerading as a tree in the early 2000s. Even living in her native Silicon Valley in Northern California surrounded by technology, she thought the tree looked out of place.
This first encounter with a decorated tower sparked her interest. From 2015-2020 she embarked on a series of road trips across the American West to document these strange manmade creations allegedly built to minimize visual pollution by blending in with the environment.
?While I was initially drawn to the towers? whimsical appearances, the more I photographed them, the more disconcerted I felt that technology was clandestinely modifying our environment,? she writes in her essay in the book. ?I began to explore how this manufactured nature had imposed a contrived aesthetic in our neighborhoods… I dubbed the series Fauxliage.?  

© Annette LeMay Burke

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Book
 

© Annette LeMay Burke

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Book
 
As disguised cell phone towers proliferate, I find it ironic that instead of providing camouflage, their disguises actually unmask their true identities. The towers have an array of creative concealments. They often impersonate trees such as evergreens, palms, and saguaros.

 

Some pillars serve other uses such as flagpoles or iconographic church crosses. Gen...