You're not in Disneyworld anymore: Florida's 'shadow country' laid bare by photographer who spent months traveling through the Sunshine State's wild side

'(workmen are pictured digging out a car)' - ?? Fascinating photos spoilt by the usual asinine DM subtitles.

Any country away from the manufactured tourist spots has this side, called real life

Perhaps you could do a similar article on London or Birmingham.

Christ, You'd need to acquire the tip-ex factory to erase all the errors in this article.

So many stupid anti US comments, take a look around you to see some of the poverty in the UK.

... and Obama is over here telling US what to do?

Someone did a terrible job with the captions.

Any photographer can seek out and photograph the poorer run down areas of any country. I could do the same in Canada and I am sure it can be done in Britain. Trying to somehow feel superior is ridiculous.

Why is it that you will not see anything like this in say, Switzerland, Norway , Cyprus, and many other countries , and yet, in the US, deprivation is wide spread and acceptable.

no different from any country in the world, you have, the have lots, have some, the have nothing and the have even less.

Lived here for almost 30 years and I can tell you these photo are staged for the most part for interest. Yes in minority areas there are rundown homes but they are quickly disappearing as we have so much building going on down here. People from all over are moving here in droves everyday including large amounts of British and we are more than happy to share our sunshine, the living is easy here come on down.

It is 'hordes', not 'hoards'. Remains 'of', not 'on'. 'Seen' not 'seem'. '...descend on State party and vacation' is not only American rather than English but makes no sense whatsoever. Spellcheckers are not a substitute for education and proofreading.

Miami and Disney World at the far end of the spectrum from these extreme cases. To be fair, if one travels Florida in a camper/caravan, there are a LOT of shades of grey between these two points, and some are fascinating, and with friendly people. Examples are agricultural areas..Dairy, oranges, pecans, sugar cane, and of course the Space Coast, and nice places on the Indian River. This Damnyankee has gone back many times. It's a cool place. Were I to choose to do so, I could find many places and situations as depressed or worse than these pictures within a thirty mile radius of where I live. Our old once-prosperous mill towns and abandoned manufacturing areas, not to mention the once prosperous Whaling ports, now with some scenes as bad as anything here, would show that rural Florida does not have a monopoly on misery.

lived there and loved it but if you fall on hard times anywhere in the USA you are on your own unlike here where you can just breed and have money thrown at you or drink all day and do drugs so you cant work you get money and told to go away but if you fall ill as i did with a stroke they want you back to work as quick as possible as they need your tax,the USA is a great country but if you have very little money its a hard country to live in.

So he took some pics of one unnamed poor village in the FL woods? This is not representative of the entire state at all.

Who wrote this article? It's Disney WORLD and there are hurricane and not earthquakes.

DM--Hello from Florida, the very unknown part in the panhandle that was profoundly affected by the BP disaster and almost obliterated by Hurricane Ivan and then by two tornadoes in less than two weeks this year. Every southern state has this kind of poverty, in case your author missed that on his way down here. Did you go anywhere except the most poverty-stricken places? No? And WE DO NOT HAVE EARTHQUAKES, DM. We have these little regular occurrences known as HURRICANES that can shatter a house with substandard construction even if you're far from the coast. And sinkholes. And areas of high lightning incidence. Etc. The usual ridiculously poor job all around. This is not Florida. This is a sad but small feature of every state and especially southern states. Does anyone ever research these laughable DM stories?

I am not in the least bit in awe of these images, so what there are bad parts of Florida, it is the same the world over.

This is not most of Florida. I was born raised in manatee county. I now live near Orlando. Most is nice. Not unlike anywhere. Look. Go to Long Island. Supposedly rich and amazing. Plenty of dumps there. Hempstead ? How about LA. San Bernardino ? Houston. Dallas. All have bad parts. If this guy wanted to see other side of Florida he should've visited people who work on swamps. Or fisherman. Or citrus farmers. Anything. But looking for poor people to photo? & poor people in the USA have a roof over heads. Cell phones. And cable tv. Yes. Working poor is tougher. And to the Brit who said outside the tourist areas where do my swrbants reside ? In places like this of course. Uh. No they don't. Many reside with their parents. Or still go to HS. And he adults many are retired or 2nd jobs. Give it a rest.

Poverty like this exists on a small scale everywhere. As a native Floridian I seldom see poverty like this and I live in a more rual area and I've been all over this beautiful state. Contrary to what this author wants everyone to believe, this is not what Florida looks like away from Disney. Besides, it's Disney World not "Disneyland"! Our state is quite beautiful with many springs, forests, and beaches. It annoys me to no end when the media try's to mislead others or exaggerate the truth. This article is far from the truth.