The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Carrie Furnace in Pittsburgh’s Swissvale section, part of which is pictured above, is where I spent a pleasant Sunday morning not too long ago. A defunct and ruined steel mill, this is a ‘national historic place.’

Pictured is the main chamber you encounter upon entering the site, which I did as part of a ‘photo safari’ offered by the Rivers of Steel non profit operation that looks after this, and other, steel industry related historic sites in the region.

When operational, this section would have looked like a literal ‘hell on earth,’ with molten metal and flames shooting about. Temperatures within this structure would have required protective garb and limited occupational exposure to its Tartarean levels of heat.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The group of photographers whom I was a member of all hit this section first, vying for position and impatiently waiting for others to ‘get out of frame.’ My plan involved going to the other sections of this ruination first, and then swinging back around this way. It worked out pretty well for me. Scroll down to the prior posts from this week for more.

As a note: I don’t like having to talk to people when I’m shooting. Usually, the headphones squash that before it gets started, but I wasn’t listening to any of my beloved audiobooks or podcasts on this outing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a bit of a labyrinth present at Carrie, and I was following both instinct and experience on this particular morning. To see prior visits – click here. The former visits informed my steps, and helped decided where I would set up the camera/tripod combo for captures.

The morning/transitioning to afternoon light was a challenge. I’m going back for another session here at the end of May, a visit which will occur in the late afternoon/early evening. The evening light should be a bit ‘kinder,’ but you never know. Last time I was here for the ‘sunset’ it rained for 2.5 of the 4 hours.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Moving through the complex, there were lots and lots of available compositions to be had. The problem was isolating myself down to individual subjects, as the byzantine complexity of the place created a ‘busy’ visual landscape.

This is always a problem that needs solving when photographing in industrial or post industrial spaces. How do you visually organize things?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This isn’t the same cylindrical structure as the one in the prior shot, as a note, there’s several of these gizmos.

After moving through the central area of the place, I looped back around to where I got started, with the intention of getting some ‘overview’ master shots. In comic book artist or film director terms, you’d call this getting an ‘establishing shot,’ which lets the viewer know where everything is before the action starts.

You’ll see that establishing shot tomorrow.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

While repositioning myself, another CSX freight train roared by.

CSX #7225 specifically. My presumption is that the train was returning from delivering its cargo to the nearby Edgar Thompson works, which is an active and very operational steel mill that’s about a mile or so up river.

Back tomorrow.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.