Our series of pictures are based on an archival photograph of Lee, Massachusetts, found through the internet and distributed through the Lee Historical Society. This color reproduction, taken from the corner of Prospect Street and Central Street looking down a hill and facing east, depicts the first paper mill in the town. Following the traditional construction of the vista, this historical image catapults the industrial condition of this town's past into its post-Fordist present. This transformation resonates across small-town America, where each neighborhood has shifted its economy into the construction of the nation's past.
In order to highlight this conversion, we decided to literally walk through the different planes that build this image. Starting at the same corner as the archival picture, we rephotographed the original vista and continued walking east on Central Street, systematically photographing at equal intervals using two different perspectives. The enlarged pictures are composed so that each one is facing the pipe of the central paper mill. The axes of the camera are tilted in opposite directions, blurring everything except for the center of the frame where the mill would be located in each instance. In the second approach, from the same camera positions, we turned to face exactly east, allowing the compositions to fall where they may, but rendering them with exact detail.
Our path negates the craftsmanship of traditional landscape imagery, forcing the reconsideration of the photographer's position. Our photographs, indeed, "depict the surface of things". However, in doing so, they also present the possibility of what could not be shown in a historical document.
