Cloud Shadows and Drifting Vapors

Cloud Shadows and Drifting Vapors
2016-2017 | cyanotypes on Arches hot press paper | 10 x 13 1/2 – 18 x 24 inches

Cloud shadows and drifting vapors is a series of images about the surface of the Gowanus Canal, with its floating debris, mucky formations and reflections of Brooklyn skies, signs and structures. As rendered in my cyanotype photographs turned upside-down, a toxic urban landscape is transformed into images of sublimely cloudy skies. The Gowanus Canal is a unique vestige of industrial Brooklyn turned dumping ground and eventually Superfund Site which began its life as a creek. The series’ title is taken from one of Asher B. Durand’s Letters on Landscape Painting, a sort of art and nature manifesto for the Hudson River School artists who lamented growing industrialization around the same time that the Gowanus Canal was taking shape.

Cyanotype is an early photographic process from the 1840s, around the time the canal was built. This process was integral to the project. Exposing chemically-treated paper to the open sky and developing images in a watery bath linked to the canal’s polluted present and industrial past. The resulting blue images conjure the colors of idealized skies and waterways.

Cloudy #8, Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn