NOW at the Waterbury Library

Photographs from the continuing series, "Brass Valley Made in America," are on exhibition at the Silas Bronson Library in Waterbury, from June 3 to July 31.

An Invitation
WHEN: June 19th at 6:30 PM
WHERE: Silas Bronson Library, Waterbury (http://www.bronsonlibrary.org/)
WHAT: Emery Roth will show slides, talk about his experiences, and read poems and stories from the draft of his book on Brass Valley. For three years Mr. Roth has been following the old railroad tracks and photographing among ruins and in the last working brass mill in the Naugatuck Valley. Thanks to the existence of a unique extruder, one brass mill continues operation. It is the last descendent of American Brass with functioning mill buildings in Ansonia and Waterbury. Mr. Roth's photographs capture the men and equipment at work, the large casting furnaces, the extruder, pickling tanks, draw benches, annealers still functioning in a facility that has been making brass tube since before WW I.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Diligence


PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL - My eye was grabbed by the layered, early morning light caught in the windows of the farm truck. As I set up the shot I also enjoyed the rectilinear design elements and the way they could divide the rectangle of the picture space. Later, I experimented with different renderings of the initial image and emerged with two very different finalists.

The one above emphasizes the world out of sight as we stand in the shadow, about to or not quite ready to take on the new day. Is it a tiny bit of theater? Is it of any significance that this is Karl Koerner's barn that Andrew Wyeth loved; the light is like light he saw.

The version below puts the emphasis a little differently. It is more two dimensional, more evenly toned, more textured, all to put emphasis on abstract form. It is a classical sampler nudging us to feel the scratchy twine a bit, or the cool, worn steel of the shovel, the heft of the door handle.

For best effect the images should be viewed as close to full screen as possible.

I'm hoping someone will feel strongly enough about one of these or the other to make a case for it, or maybe it doesn't matter much.