A changing landscape in "Common Ground"

Left: Jean Cagwin on her family farm in Lockport, Ill. -- land which was later sold to a developer who created the Willow Walk subdivision (right).

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Scott Strazzante first visited Harlow and Jean Cagwin's 114-acre farm in the spring of 1994, to snap photos for a newspaper story about people who raised farm animals in suburban Chicago. He would return over the years, as the land was turned into sites for dozens of homes.

The striking similarities he found between a farm family and the community's newest residents are captured in his stunning new book, "Common Ground" (PSG).

The Cagwin Farm

For eight years Strazzante photographed Harlow and Jean Cagwin's labor at their Lockport, Ill., farm, where they raised a herd of Angus beef cattle.

Photographer

Photojournliast Scott Strazzante on the Cagwin farm.

"Maybe it was nostalgia, or just a desire to document a simpler world, but there was something magical about the place that kept me going back," he writes.

The Cagwin Farm

Left: A truck carries away the last of the Cagwins' cattle, marking the end of their farming days.

Harlow Cagwin's family had settled at the farm before he was five years old, but in 2002 it was time to retire. With no children, he and his wife, Jean, decided to sell their land to a developer.

Demolition

On July 2, 2002, Harlow Cagwin watched as the hundred-year-old farmhouse - in which he'd lived for 75 years - was demolished.

According to the National Resources Inventory, between 1982 and 2007 the United States lost more than 23,000,000 acres of active agricultural land to development.

Aerial Views

Harlow told photographer Scott Strazzante that he watched as houses were then built on the land he'd farmed for decades.

"They're good houses," he said, satisfied.

Easter Egg Hunt

A neighborhood Easter egg hunt is held by suburban families at Cinnamon Court, in the Willow Walk subdivision of Lockport, Ill., April 7, 2007.

Rustling

On Strazzante's second visit to Cinnamon Court, he photographed Ben Grabenhofer as he wrestled with his cousin, C.J., on the front lawn of their home. The familiarity of the scene reminded him of a picture he'd taken years earlier, of Harlow Cagwin struggling to lasso a day-old calf that had escaped into a field of hay.

Putting the two images side by side, "something magical happened," he said. "I had discovered their common ground."

Buckets

Buckets take on a new meaning -- from feeding cattle to protective headgear in a Cinnamon Court driveway Grand Prix.

Grace

Two families give thanks over simple meals.

Boundaries

An aerial view of the Cagwin Farm, and of children at play.

Rest

Left: Harlow Cagwin slumps onto a bed after the last of his cattle was taken away. Right: Aiden Grabenhofer invades his sister's room and flops onto her bed.

Animal Pix

A child's drawing of an animal recalls the heritage of livestock on the land.

Loving Care

Left: Harlow and Jean Cagwin.

Right: Ed and Amanda Grabenhofer, who have had four children since moving into the subdivision built on the Cagwins' farmland.

Rooms With a View

Left: Harlow Cagwin's sister, Sandy, looks out the window of her childhood bedroom before the house was demolished.

Right: Abby and Caity Grabenhofer look out the window of the room they share.

Return

Harlow and Jean Cagwin on a visit to the subdivision.

Jars

In 2002, Harlow and Jean Cagwin left their cattle farm in Lockport, Ill., making room for the Willow Walk subdivision. Three years later, Ed and Amanda Grabenhofer and their four children settled in at the end of Cinnamon Court, just yards from where the Cagwin barns once stood.