A New Gilded Age
For several years I have been photographing forest clear cuts in the Pacific Northwest. The experience has revealed a convoluted and tangled web of profit from extraction industries and their relationships to corporate wealth. When walking the financial districts of cities, I began connecting the dots behind iconic buildings and industrial exploitation. Through my photography I began intuitively exploring this architecture, working to define a side of history not obviously visible; how oligarchs and their corporations make wealth from exploiting natural resources.
With my camera, I purposefully set out with these intentions, employing the technique of double exposing medium format film through my vintage bellows camera. After the initial exposures, In the darkroom, I back-roll the film and re-expose it with contrasting imagery. Often these two polarizing images, one of nature, a resource of exploitation and another of iconic buildings connected to finance and commerce, became the visual vernacular of my narrative. When developed, the images became a haunting visual story of how our city landscapes have been funded. “A New Gilded Age” is the result of this multi-year work.
I chose to print these images with a historical alternative photo process, Platinum/Palladium on rag paper. After developing the film, I scan the original negatives to produce a negative the size I wish to contact print. I then mix the emulsion and hand coat the paper. The Platinum/Palladium printing process adds a depth to the final image, alluding to the gravitas of the landscapes captured.
Tony Bellaver