ARCHITECTURAL DEVOLUTION: Industrial Buildings in a Post-Industrial Age

Although the industrial building will exist as long as we make things, the imposing presence of late 19th century and early 20th century brick, concrete and steel factories that once shaped our great cities is gradually coming to an end. In this new exhibition, I have selected photographs from both recent and never-exhibited earlier work, to survey the fate of older industrial buildings, especially within the de-industrialized urban context. I have drawn on both digital and film-original large format images to create highly-detailed photographs which illustrate the conditions of buildings purpose-built for various enterprises, many of which have outlived their original functions.

The exhibition includes images of concrete grain elevators in Trois Rivieres and Buffalo, brick factories in Berlin and Toronto, and gleaming storage tanks in Montreal. The fate of older industrial building is as varied as the structures themselves. Some sites I photographed no longer exist. While some multi-story factories can be transformed into commercial and residential spaces, many structures cannot be adapted and are allowed to deteriorate or are demolished. My depiction of these buildings is part of my ongoing work in documenting architectural history in Toronto, where I reside, and Montreal, the city of my birth.

Part of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.