Growing up in a military family, photographer Jen Mawson never lived anywhere for more than a few months or years at a time. Now based in Boston, Massachusetts, Mawson attributes her comfort with the ephemeral to her transient childhood. Her recent series, “This Low Mound of Earth,” feels like a meditation on the passing of time—seen through the evidence of dilapidation and decay Mawson immortalizes with her camera.

“These photographs show instances of waste, fragmentation, and compromise in a culture that is mired in excess and rapidly approaching its limits both in the environment and in society,” she explains. “The world is, for the most part, shown as I have found it—broken, incomplete, ordinary yet complex and fascinating.”

See more from “This Low Mound of Earth” below!