Photography Exhibition: “Objects of Industrialism”

On December 7th I opened an exhibition in a quaint gallery in Holyoke, MA. “Objects of Industrialism” is a body of work that focuses on the objects that remain after the collapse of the industrial revolution. In the last 4 years I have spent countless hours exploring, examining, studying, and photographing industrial spaces. Almost every space that I have photographed has been closed for nearly 10 years or more.   The industrial revolution paved the way for a lot of cities in the U.S. to be built. Entire neighborhoods, city blocks, sidewalks, buildings, small business, and a variety of other things have been built because of Industrialism. What remains is a vast amount, a large collection of objects. Below is my statement from the exhibition and a set of images that I featured. One thing that I would like to add is, behind the glass of every frame, the images are presented on paper that was once produce in Holyoke, the paper capital of the world. Holyoke was known as the “Paper City,” with the gross amount of paper mills. Another interesting fact, Holyoke was the first pre-planned industrial cities in the U.S. The paper that photographs reside on adds a character to each image. In one image the paper’s texture plays a vital role in how the image is read. In another image the texture is hidden, not so visible, but the surface of the paper still makes a visual impact by reducing the contrast of the image. It is a rather unique display and pairing of the images on this paper, paper that was once made in Holyoke.