America's southern states, from sunbelt to stormbelt – in pictures

'In 2009, after the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, hope was in the air, as was a grim reality on the ground. The sun belt, which had led America in growth and innovation for the past few decades, had stalled'
Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Highway 98, Florida: 'The images that Leslie made on his journey across the region at this time in history reveal a quiet despair. This was no longer a confident nation leading a new world order; this was a disillusioned people who’d had something taken away from them by an adversary they couldn’t quite identify or agree upon'
Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Long Beach, Mississippi: 'People await the coming storm, tenuously holding their worlds together with tape and twine'
Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Nevada-California borders: 'The fabric of the country was fraying at the edges' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Miami, Florida: 'America was in the grip of a financial crisis that could have easily sent it into a 1930s-style depression. Proportioning blame and finger-pointing filled the airwaves' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Crystal Beach, Texas: 'Unlike the transience of television news and newspaper journalism, this collection of still imagery creates something greater than any individual image, it gives us a marker that we can look back to as we edge further into an uncertain future'
Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Monument Valley; Utah: 'In the sunbelt far from Washington, the pain continues; people are losing their homes, benefits are being lost, good jobs continue to disappear, the despair is still palpable' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Sabine Pass, Texas: 'We follow the quiet journey of Robert and his camera through a land where the notion of the unstoppable economy, a land of plenty, the ‘American dream’, is brought into question' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Seligman, Arizona: 'The richest country in the world seems to have turned its back on those on the lower rungs' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing

Taft, Louisiana: 'Is this moment in history a major setback, or the beginning of the inevitable decline of an empire?' Photograph: Robert Leslie from Stormbelt/Dewi Lewis Publishing