STEEL TOWN

In 1977, Stephen Shore traveled through New York State, Pennsylvania and the East from Ohio - a region in deep industrial decline that would eventually become known under the name Rust Bel. Shore met with metallurgists who had been made unemployed by factory closures and suddenly photographed their world fragile: deserted factories, lonely bars, declining shopping streets and beautifully decorated houses. Through these images, we see a Central America prosperous teeter on the precipice of disastrous decline. Hope and despair constantly lurks behind the surfaces of store fronts, domestic interiors and the tense expressions of those facing the Shore 4x5 Vision Camera. Originally commissioned as a report extended photographic work for Fortune Magazine in the vein of Walker Evans, Shore's multifaceted investigation only gained political importance in the years that followed. Shore's subjects - including workers, union leaders and family members - had voted for Jimmy Carter the year before his visit; now he found them disappointed with the new President, condemned to leave behind the Democratic Party and become the "Reagan Democrats." Through ever-captivating images of one of the recognized masters of the world, Steel Town offers an immersive portrait of a time and of a place whose significance for us is increasingly urgent. With a essay recently commissioned by Jane Kramer, European correspondent for the New Yorker. Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited over the of the last 45 years. At 23, he is the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, 40 years earlier. More than 25 books have been published on the photographs by Stephen Shore, including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works and American Surfaces; works that are now considered milestones important figures in the history of photography. Shore is represented by 303 Gallery (New York) and Sprüth Magers (London and Berlin). Jane Kramer is A staff writer at The New Yorker since 1964 and a regular feature writer, "Letter from Europe" since 1981. Kramer has published more than ten books, including several have won awards.