Never overlook the grime
If you’ve been a student of photography, and certainly if you’ve been a student of documentary or photojournalism you are probably familiar with the name Eugene Smith. While the American photographer is probably best known for his “Country Doctor” photo essay, he did an equally interesting one – at least to me – of Pittsburg Steel Workers. The grittiness, the grime, the workplaces were so well captured you could imagine the heat. And he was shooting with black and white film. Locomotives have always fascinated me. Whether it is because of their size, their sounds, or the just the sheer power they produce, they are also in my mind a work of art. All of these parts moving together, there is something pretty fascinating about it, and its design. I am in by no means likening my image here to Smith’s work. Other than to say when I was shooting this, his gritty images of Pittsburg were front and centre in my mind. You can see more images like this here on my stock archive.
Mark Spowart Photography 