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

"In one of his most striking images, a young girl sits on the floor in what appears to be the remnants of a house. Tightly grasped in her hand is a snake. It is not clear what happened to the property. Perhaps it was damaged in an earthquake or became so dilapidated it was bulldozed." Please do some research before making such comments. The only earthquake to hit Florida that caused in damage was in St. Augustine in January 1879 where plaster fell off the walls.Florida is a beautiful state as is most of the US. You can find just about anything you want if you go look for it. Which, it would appear, is exactly what Hartleberg did. He wanted to find run down buildings and poverty and that's what he found. I can pretty much guarantee that within a mile's radius of where these photographs were taken you will find nice well maintained towns and communities.

That is so NOT a "mangrove swamp". Those are regrowths of taxodium, whether distichum or ascendens we don't know, but known in English as bald cypress or swamp cypress.

The picture captions are simply bizarre.

Digging a car out, looks more like they're digging a grave.............

Disney world in Florida -Disneyland in California!

There is plenty of poverty in NY, CA, France and the UK as well.

There are some wonderful places few tourists know about that are way off the beaten path.

Poor photographer. If this is a revelation for him in Florida he has 49 other states to do the very same thing in. Not one state in America is comprised entirely of middle class, suburban, cookie cutter perfection. You can find similar towns across the country. It can be interesting but there is nothing shocking or surprising about it. Wht would be surprising would be if it didn't exist.

The girl with the snake is odd, where are her parents? She's sitting in the debris of an old house, with a snake and a weird look on her face ...the woman in the picture agrees with me.

Hordes, not hoards.

Those aren't mangroves in the 6th photo. They're cypress trees. In Palm Beach County alone you have Palm Beach on the east and extreme poverty on the west. You can find expensive neighborhoods just half a mile from depressed neighborhoods. I'm sure this is true in many cities. Wherever you find the 1%, you'll find the people who serve them, or who suffer from the policies that enable them.

I have travelled all over Florida, most of it is great and i would thoroughly recommend it.

Trouble is, the tourist, hotel, retail, restuarant industries are all notorious for their low pay. because most work in those sectors is 'transferable' - it can be done by anyone with almost no training. So when tourists go on holiday to a theme park or a beautiful beach, who is serving the drinks, cleaning the rooms? Where do they think these workers live? That's right, in a deprived area just back from the resort where the tourists aren't encouraged to go.

Interesting photos, but Flrodai, seriously DM, it's that hard to spellcheck?

The little boys are adorable. Kids can be happy even in poverty if they are loved and adored.

Pic 8 looks more like they are burying someone, rather than "digging out cars."

Don't they have belts in Florida?

It isn't "hoards of tourists", it's "hordes of tourists", unless the guys digging for the car have found a secret box full of them.

So who created the s/hole that they live in? People.

Great photography ... Every city , town and village has its not so welcoming areas . Quite honestly , the images were nowhere near as bad as deprived districts in England .