Artificial Daylight (Industrial)

The name of the project, Artificial Daylight, comes from a friend's reaction upon seeing some of my early images.

Having spent most of my working life in one factory or another, I've always found an odd beauty, a kind of accidental artistry, in these places built for function rather than form. After I was no longer working in factories, I began wandering these bleak industrial landscapes at night, the natural hum of traffic and machinery surrounding me, trying to capture images that were eerie and serene, isolating and communal, and that paid tribute to the quiet dignity of labor in these weathered, aging and often overlooked places. The project ran from 1998 until 2004. Since finishing this project, most of these buildings have been razed or renovated, and the work has taken on an unanticipated historical context.

There has been no digital manipulation in any of these images. They are all the natural occurrences of daylight balanced film subjected to time exposures under existing light sources of different color temperatures, something I like to call "a controlled mistake." No additional light sources were used. I used only lights that were put there by people who built or worked in these buildings, lights intended for a purpose other than my own. Every element was to be utilitarian in nature.