In 1977, Stephen Shore traveled through New York State, Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, an area in full industrial decline that would eventually become known as the Rust Belt. Shore met with steel workers who had been put out of work by plant closures and photographed their suddenly fragile world: deserted factories, lonely bars, sloping back streets and lovingly decorated houses. Through these images, a prosperous Middle America is seen teetering on the precipice of disastrous decline. Hope and despair alike lurk behind the surfaces of shop fronts, domestic interiors, and the tense expressions of those confronting Shore's 4x5 "camera. This multi-faceted investigation, originally commissioned as a comprehensive photo report For Fortune magazine in the vein of Walker Evans, it has only gained political prominence in recent years. Shore's subjects - including workers, union leaders, and family members - had voted for Jimmy Carter the year before to his visit, now finding them disillusioned with the new president, destined to leave the Democratic Party behind and become “Reagan's Democrats.” Through the infallible images of one of the world's renowned teachers, Steel Town offers an immersive portrait of a time and a place whose meaning for ours is increasingly urgent.
Dimensions: 23.5 x 30 cm,
104 pages
Language: English
