What first led you to pursue
the theme of American
industrial decline with your
photography?
To begin with, my passion for history and
respect for the ingenuity of our forefathers was
genetically coded in me. My grandfather was an
inventor during the American depression of the
1930s and my father was an electrical pioneer.
Growing up, one of my childhood friends
lived adjacent to a heavy equipment industrial
yard just outside of Detroit, Michigan. It was
located next to an old 1930’s railroad viaduct
that had abandoned rooms and passageways.
Half my youth was spent wandering these
passageways and stairways that led to sealed
off exits, wondering about the people who had
used them in the past; the other half of my time
was spent climbing in, on and under abandoned
bulldozers, loaders, cranes and anything else that
had leaking fluids and jagged bits of metal—
many left their mark on my clothes and flesh.
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