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The world of factories and industry is a crucial yet oft-forgotten fact that undergirds the bustling prosperity of contemporary American life. Photographer Andrew Borowiec has spent his career exploring the industrial fields of middle America, and he now turns his camera's eye southward in "Industrial Perspective, exploring the panoramic landscapes along and near the Gulf of Mexico where oil and gas industry workers live and work.
Borowiec gained permission from oil corporations to enter their high-security sites and was thus able to photograph the delicate balance of land, life, and industry along the Gulf. The region's immense concentration of oil, chemical, and paper plants has created one of America's most unique and misunderstood contemporary landscapes, and Borowiec unravels its complexity in his evocative images. The visual sequence of "Industrial Perspective reveals a continually evolving area that was transformed after World War II from a plantation system into an intricate and vast industrial complex built to accommodate the demands of a surging American economy. As Borowiec reveals through his striking images, this world of iron, oil, and heat enabled the American dream to come to fruition, yet its unyielding and stark character is virtually alien to those who do not live near the region.
"Industrial Perspective is a compelling and vibrant collection of images that offers a unique and powerful view of the industrial realities of American abundance.
About the author
Andrew Borowiec is professor of art in the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at the University of Akron and the author of Along the Ohio. His work has been widely exhibited and is represented in numerous print collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of American Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He is also the recipient of numerous grants, including National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim fellowships.
