Expansion is a series of photographic works that explores the relationship between photographs of the American West, the history of the American West, and the popular romanticized narrative of that history. The images recreate historic photographs of the American West to examine how historical, cinematic, and vernacular images have constructed the myth of the West by creating a visual language that promotes ideologies inherent to Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. The images are digital constructions made from photographs of dirt piles that are a result of present-day urban expansion and new home construction. Each digital construction comprises 30-50 separate photographs manipulated to create one harmonious landscape image. The landscape images are then printed as traditional Ambryotypes. Ambrotypes, or Wet Plate photography, is a 19th-century photographic process in which images are printed onto prepared glass plates.