Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
comment that they fit within the construct of ironic banality explored by
many of today's most influential visual artists.
Furthermore, when we focus less on the subject materials of the pho-
tographs and more on their composition, especially the use of perspective
and atmospheric effects, we find that the formal aspects of these images
borrow from various traditions. First, the isolation of the plants, which
contrasts so markedly with most early representations of industry, im-
presses upon the viewer their lack of context. Framed by the edge of the
photographs, chemical plants are portrayed without reference to the land
or people that their presence might affect, either positively or negatively.
This cropped frame removes them from all external reference points al-
lowing the photograph to symbolically eliminate the chemical plants po-
tential for contamination. The static, unpeopled content of the photo-
graphs, in collusion with the reiterative character of the images, thus
simultaneously produces and reinforces a sense of containment and safe-
ty. Important to this effect is the photographic perspective, which aligns
the plants with early architectural photographs of castles and cathedrals
that contain similar formal features such as towers and conical elements
(Figure 18) (Robinson & Herschman 1987, pp. 2-55). Like those images,
these are often frontal shots from ground level viewpoints, which empha-
size the vastness of the structure. Although less frequently, some chemi-
cal landscape photographs are shot from an elevated position, a perspec-
tive also common in early architectural photographs of cathedrals and
castles. Ironically, like the genre of landscape painting itself, which
marked an artistic shift from Classic to Romantic and Christian to secular
(Mitchell 2002, p. 13), images of chemical plants transpose the art his-
torical perspective used primarily to image cathedrals (Christian) and
castles (classical) into the ultimate site of secularization - industry. By a
unique legerdemain, however, the simple fact that these photographs par-
ticipate in this tradition has the simultaneous effect of hallowing the in-
dustrial site and placing it under the symbolic aegis that cathedrals and
castles historically sustained. In effect, these photographs invite a sym-
bolic exchange in which the industrial site can stand in for the signs of
governance and social order historically signified by castle and church.
