Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York, 14 September 2006 - 7 January 2007, another example exhibited
Literature
Steidl, Mitch Epstein: American Power, n.p.
Catalogue Essay
“I wanted to photograph the relationship between American society and the American landscape, and energy was the lynchpin ... For the next five years, I travelled the country making photographs at or near energy production sites: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, fuel cell, wind, and solar.”—Mitch Epstein
In 2003 Mitch Epstein was commissioned by the New York Times to document the town of Cheshire, Ohio, where the American Electric Power Company offered the town’s residents financial reward in exchange for their departure. However, despite the offer, which was made to accommodate the company’s wish to expand its plant, some residents chose to stay. The series engendered Epstein’s interest in capturing the relationship between the residents of Middle America and the corporate power titans that surround them. The resulting body of work is a poignant analysis of the dynamic inherent to a capitalist society, which includes matters of consumption, excess, environmentalist and national identity. In the current image, the alleged innocence of a humble, All-American backyard is jolted by the presence of towering chimneys in the background, presenting a vision of a shifting American ideal.
Other prints of this image are in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York.