The photographer I have chosen is Mitch Epstein. A North-American photographer that has travelled around the world doing all kinds of photography and several different series that have been published and shown in various galleries. The series I am going to focus on is called "American Power". It is a series of photos from around USA which he started after he visited Cheshire in Ohio and saw the neighbourhoods being torn down to construct a nuclear power plant. The power company payed the residents to leave but there was an old lady who refused, named Beulah "Boots" Hern, who Epstein photographed. She lived with two security cameras on the window and a gun in her hand intending on protecting her property.
Epstein wanted to explore the cultural relationship with the subject of energy in the USA. In Epstein's own words of this series: "I am trying to find and convey truth about how we Americans live, what we want, and what it costs to get it" (Mitch Epstein - WORK pg 221). The series is neither a critique or an acceptance of these power plants or the affect they have, it is just an exploration of how people live with them. He has since won the Picket Prize 2011 for this body of work.
The 3 images I have chosen from this body of work are:
1.- Oildale, California 2006
2.- Amos Coal Power Plant, Poca, West Virginia 2004
3.- Gavin Coal Power Plant, Cheshire, Ohio 2003
All 3 images are different. In a sense that the first one is a landscape of a direct view of an oil field, where the landscape and the various industrial and oil machines and transportation tubes are mixed together.
The second one is also a landscape but more of an indirect way where he mixes the high contrast colours of the football team with the industrial and non-environmental friendly backdrop of the nuclear plant's cooling towers, mixing two very different photographic genres: photo-conceptualism and documentary photographers. The main focus of this image is the football team but the nuclear plant in the background gives it a feeling of the overwhelming presence of the industry.
The third one is a totally different picture then the two before that, when first looking at it I saw two clouds but then you notice where they are coming from, two smoke towers and realise that it is in fact contaminating the environment. It strikes me afterwards that something that is initially beautiful might be a man-made monstrosity. I believe that Epstein is trying to portray this feeling of not knowing if it is a good thing or a bad thing what these power plants produce. But also the clouds and the lighting behind it make it highly artistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment