 Quenching Tower, Acme Steel, 1998 |
I moved to Chicago in 1995 to get closer to the great steel metropolis of Gary, Indiana, and attend the School of the Art Institute. I have been photographing active industry in the Midwest since 1992 -- my fascination with industrial landscapes grew out of an almost complete lack of such sights near my childhood home in rural Ohio.
Night photography allows me to eliminate detail and increase spans of obscurity and rich color. I shift the focus from each nut and bolt to the overall massive forms -- often black and silhouetted or artificially illuminated. When exposing, I use a lens with a long focal length, which flattens out spatial relationships and adds a layer of abstraction. I stretch the color balance and color density further in the darkroom, seeking the point at which the image is still believable, but exaggerated.
I print my photographs quite large -- ranging from 16"x20" to 40"x50" -- and laminate their surfaces with a clear luster, rather than obscuring the large, dark areas behind the reflections of glass or plexiglass. The rich colors of the images glow under the warm lights of a gallery; they are presented in custom-made mild steel frames which are sanded and finished in a deep gun blue.
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These photos occupy the space between exaggerations and lies: It is impossible for the subjects to actually appear as they do in the photographs. Their representation is unique to photography and separate from reality. The passing of time accumulates on the film and captures distortions such as color shift and generalization of movement.
My ultimate goal is to emphasize the force and drama with which industrial structures rise up from the urban landscape. Steel mills and power plants contain the same tense beauty and spectacular power as volcanoes and electrical storms. Their presence is a formidable rival to the beauty found in nature.
Production by The Site of Big Shoulders