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Undergraduate Research at UMass Dartmouth
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Since the closing of American factories in the late
1970s, post-industrial ruins have appeared in many
parts of the United States. Whether left abandoned
or transformed into new uses, the post-industrial
building is a prevalent force on the Northeastern
American setting. Accordingly, these buildings
(especially their ruinous shells), have been popular
subjects of both art and art historical research and
are particularly of interest to photographers. Having
read a vast body of literature on the American
post-industrial city, I learned that, unfortunately,
many of these urban contexts end up remaining in
ruins, a problem particularly common in Detroit.
Foreign tourists come to see the abandoned factories,
forcing the city to remain in disrepair with a
low quality of life for its citizens. What is the history
of the fetishization or the neglect of the industrial
ruin in the New England region? How far back does
this history go? What can we learn from this history?
How can this historical knowledge allow us to come
up with better ways of representing these cities and
even providing remedies for them?
character in photography is also directly tied to their
complicated relationship to American history. The
industrial factory and its corresponding neighborhood
was at once a symbol for American power and
wealth as well as a reflection of the flawed class
system that forced many into difficult labor. The
period of prosperity in which factories were prominent
was also a time of intense race and gender
boundaries, and reflections on the post-industrial
building are innately tied to the society created by
powerful class borders. Americans’ relationship
to the post-industrial ruin is inherently entwined
with our complicated feelings about our difficult
past. However, ruins are fundamentally ambiguous;
the empty spaces can be nostalgic, prophetic, or
escapist, so the meaning heavily relies on artists’
intentions and viewer expectations.
In fall 2015 I received a grant from the OUR to investigate
the ways in which the post-industrial landscapes
of the Northeast were depicted in the work of
late-twentieth century artists. My research analyzed
Northeastern American post-industrial ruins in the
work of six artists from four perspectives: ruins as
prophetic, ruins as nostalgic, ruins as disappointment,
and ruins as problematic. The ambiguity of the
ruin allows these vastly different lenses to color the
interpretations of ruins photography. Their complex
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Coal Tipple, Goodspring,
Pennsylvania,1975. Screen-shot from the Museum of Modern
Art website. Screen-shot taken from www.moma.org/collection/
works/109523?locale=en. © Museum of Modern Art, New York City