Packing sheds, grain silos, wooden tank house outbuildings, and mine elevators have been eloquently captured by David Stark Wilson’s keen, appreciative, and knowledgeable eye. Using a large format view camera, Wilson has elevated these architecturally underappreciated structures of pure utility that dot our rural landscape and given them consequence, meaning, and a haunting beauty.
The text of Structures of Utility is a quiet yet passionate meditation on Wilson’s dedication to “pursue in the natural landscape a reprieve from urban existence.” In both words and pictures, he captures the disquietingly abandoned landscape that is the beating heart of California.
David Stark Wilson, born in Berkeley, California, is an award-winning building designer and has been a photographer since the age of seventeen. He is the author of 
