MTC ART GALLERY

The MTC community art program presents:

After Dark

Photos by
Tom Paiva

LunchStop Cafe
MetroCenter
101 Eighth Street, Oakland
(at the Lake Merritt BART Station)
510.817.5700
Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays

Artist's Statement

These 10 photographs are taken from two series I have been working on over the past year.  One set of images is from an exploration of the construction of the new San Francisco Bay Bridge Eastern Span.  I am attracted to the monumental scale and dynamic forms of the development of this major bridge project.   Each image is a moment in time, because the project is always changing, morphing each month as new materials, engineering, and components are added. 

The second set of 5 images is from industrial sites of quite diverse types: oil and chemical refineries and one image of a ship in drydock.   No one who built these structures had any thought of aesthetics.  They are intended to be functional over any consideration of visual concerns.  However, I find these environments exceedingly appealing.  The forms are modern, massive, simplified, without embellishment.  Light creates dimension and startling relationships.  It can magnify shapes and textures, and stimulate the viewer's interest.  

There is a long tradition of American photographers who focus on the industrial landscape.  Like Charles Sheeler's photographs of the Ford Rouge Plant in Detroit; Luke Swank's work of steel mills in Pittsburgh; and Margaret Bourke White's photographs of power plants throughout the country, I am drawn to the power and monumentalism of major industrial projects.   But unlike most of these great artists, I enjoy working at night and twilight, and in color.  The commercial sites are often still functioning, but the glare and energy of the day has subsided.  What is raw and ugly in the noon time sun is transformed by night into an evocative landscape you want to explore and linger in.

I adore large format.  The 4x5 negative captures an unbelievable amount of detail and tonality.  On the other hand, it is incredibly hard to do, especially at night.  Rarely can I get more than three or four images completed in a night's work.  I actually like the technical challenges of working with film at night.  You cannot be sure what the film will pick up in these environments of complex mixed light sources, diverse intensities, and deep shadows.  The available light sources of sodium vapor, mercury vapor, metal halide, tungsten and fluorescent intensify the yellows, blues, greens, and overall depth.  I do not use computer manipulation in my work. 
— Tom Paiva