STEEL TOWN - Stephen Shore

In 1977, Stephen Shore criss-crossed New York State, Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, a region in the throes of industrial decline that would later become known as the “Rust Belt“. Here, he met steelworkers made redundant by plant closures, and photographed their suddenly fragile world: deserted factories, lonely bars, decaying shopping streets and lovingly decorated homes. Through these images, we see a prosperous middle America on the brink of disastrous decline. Hope and despair lurk behind storefronts, domestic interiors and the troubled expressions of those who face Shore’s 4×5 camera.

Originally commissioned as a long-form photo essay for Fortune magazine in the vein of Walker Evans, Shore’s multifaceted survey only gained political significance in the years that followed: Shore’s subjects – workers, union leaders and family members – had voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976; he found them disillusioned by the new president, doomed to leave the Democratic Party and become “Reagan Democrats”. With captivating images from one of the world’s greatest masters, Steel Town offers an immersive portrait of a time and place whose importance to our own is increasingly pressing.

With text by Helen C. Epstein, author, translator and professor of human rights and public health.

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