D.C. photographer captures NoVA's data center boom
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Photo: Stephen Voss
Data centers are all over the headlines, but one D.C. photographer is trying to show how they actually affect the people living near them.
Why it matters: The data center boom is reshaping our region so quickly that some of the places Stephen Voss photographed just a few years ago already look different.
Case in point: When Voss began photographing Tippett's Hill Cemetery, a historically Black burial site in Sterling, for the "Dark Fiber" series he launched in 2023, data centers surrounded the property on two sides.
- Today, he says, it's surrounded on three.
State of play: "Dark Fiber" documents how data center development has transformed Northern Virginia communities, and Voss says interest has taken off in the past nine months as debate has intensified.
- When he started pitching the series to outlets a few years ago, there was radio silence. Now his photos have appeared in outlets like the Washington Post and Mother Jones.
The big picture: The Northern Virginia data center wars have hit a boiling point as communities increasingly push back.
- Loudoun County voted to pause new data center applications, and an Amazon data center slated for the county was just scrapped.
What they're saying: Voss got the idea for his photo series when he was driving back from a shoot in Ashburn and found himself marveling at the scale of all the data centers.
- "I just got really fascinated by this idea of the digital infrastructure of our lives is [in] these buildings," he tells Axios. "The cloud is actually these big cement buildings in Ashburn."
He quickly realized that data centers are "incredibly boring buildings" to photograph, pointing to their drab, windowless exteriors.
- But everything started clicking when he began shooting them in context with the communities around them.
- "I want people to understand what the consequences of our digital world [are]."
Yes, but: Voss isn't explicitly anti-data center — he recognizes that they're necessary for AI expansion and that they've brought massive tax revenue to places like Loudoun County, helping fund new schools, parks and rec centers.
- "But I don't ever hear that [argument] from the people who are living right next to them," he says of the tax benefits.
- He says data center development should be more "responsibly managed."
What we're watching: Voss says he's noticed Northern Virginia data center development slow recently as local jurisdictions take steps to rein in growth.
- But he says he still has plenty of material elsewhere in the country: He's shot data centers in spots like Texas, Utah, Tennessee and Arizona.
Meanwhile, he's working on a book, "Every Past and Tomorrow," which will showcase the series and likely launch early next year.
- The aim: To capture "the wonder and the unease of this moment we're in right now."
