Carrie Furnace, part 3
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing the series of posts from my visit to the Rivers of Steel ‘Photo Safari’ at the Carrie Furnaces in Pittsburgh’s Swissvale section.
Actually, I don’t know if Swissvale is it’s own thing – town, village, borough – or what. This ‘commonwealth’ business out here is fairly inscrutable, as offered here in the Keystone State of Pennsylvania. You’ve got towns, cities, boroughs… HQ, for instance, is in the Borough of Dormont, but if you were to send me a letter you’d address it as ‘Pittsburgh.’ Additionally, my place is found in Dormont, but the guy across the street from me lives in Pittsburgh (City of…). It’s weird, man.
It gets even more complicated when it comes to Cops and Fire coverage in Pittsburgh. There’s Sheriffs, and Constables, and ‘regular’ Police. The local departments seem to be trained for the day to day stuff, whereas if there’s a homicide or something really complicated they’ll first call out the ‘DT’s’ from Pittsburgh PD, and then above the PPD Detectives there’s the Pennsylvania State Troopers who handle all sorts of high level stuff but who also do the regular cop duties when needed. I haven’t seen any of these Troopers yet (you wouldn’t miss them as they wear Smokey the Bear hats with the chin strap) and supposedly there’s a whole other Federal level of law enforcement here as well, including FBI and the rest of the alphabet agencies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the two posts prior to this one, it was mentioned that that I had somewhat free reign to wander about large sections of the Carrie Furnace site, with my camera mounted up on a tripod. I moved in an anticlockwise or widdershins direction. This had a lot to do with the position of the sun, and was a little bit influenced by an intellectual game I play with myself.
It was a fairly warm day, and that rarest of things in Pittsburgh – a clear sky – allowed the radiation of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself to cascade to the ground unimpeded. Sol Invictus, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The remains of a rail connection and a crane are found on the Carrie site. Location wise, on the other side of that graffiti’d wall is a sloping and quite wooded bank of the Monongahela River. The graffiti is intentional, and several panels of the wall were displaying rendered mural paintings in addition to the more traditional tags and letterform stuff. They do workshops for this art form here, and in addition there are classes which teach aluminum, and iron, sculptural casting technique.
After this post publishes, I’m certain that several people will be compelled to leave a comment describing the function and history of the rail line and the privately owned (‘private’ as in owned and operated by U.S. Steel) freight rail service that used to feed raw materials into the plant. Have at it, railfans!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the old locomotive units is actually on display.
A humble narrator continued to circle the remains of Carrie Furnace, clicking the camera’s shutter as I went. I wasn’t trying to do anything too fancy, just working the scene. Whenever you ‘come in cold’ to a place like this, you need to ‘look up, down, all around’ since there was zero prep other than the basics. You also can’t let yourself bog down and spend all your time focused on one thing, or another, because you don’t know what’s just around the corner. I know a lot of photographers who would just stroll in, take a single shot and say ‘one and done.’ That ain’t the Mitch way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I figure that if you’ve got three hours, which I had, that’s 180 minutes you don’t want to waste. Plenty of time afterwards to chat with the other participants. I wish that I wasn’t there between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., but there you go. Just about the worst part of day for light. Good news? It wasn’t raining. Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind the rain if we were there at dusk, or dawn.
The even better news? I have Tix for another Photo Safari at Carrie Furnace in late July which starts at 6:30 p.m. and goes till 9:30 p.m. Now that I know what to expect, I’ve already started planning for that one. As long time readers will tell you, I like low light.
Bwah hah ha.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tomorrow’s post will finish describing the circuit around Carrie Furnace. This was absolutely one of the most exciting things I’ve gotten to experience here in Pittsburgh, and that’s saying something.
Back tomorrow.
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Carrie Furnace, part 2
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a humble narrator bought his way onto a ‘photo safari’ event at the Carrie Furnaces in Pittsburgh’s Swissvale section. A National Historic Place, Carrie was once part of U.S. Steel’s Homestead works – which – during its time – was the largest steel plant on the planet. A guide from the Rivers of Steel outfit, which cares for and manages the place, had given us a brief overview and walk through description of where we could and couldn’t go. After that, she headed back to the front gate, and since free reign was now in effect – I got busy.
These are all tripod shots, and represent a delicate balancing act as far as exposure goes. Within the structures, it was either morning daylight shining through, or deeply shadowed. As in the case of the shot above, it was both simultaneously. Luckily, I know a camera trick or two to handle this sort of thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned ‘photo stacking’ before, although in the context of focus. This technique involves moving the lens’ point of focus, on a tripod mounted camera, around the frame during multiple exposures. For example – You do one close up, one middle depth, and one focused on infinity. In photoshop the three are combined, with the software building a single uniformly sharp image out of the three. I’ve used this technique a lot over the years, and it’s particularly useful when doing landscape shots.
You can also photo stack for exposure. This gets a little more complicated, and the hard part of it is remembering what you were doing when you shot the subject in the field, as you’re slogging through the image folder while back at HQ and in front of the computer. The shot above, for instance, used one exposure and point of focus for the interior foreground, and a second set of settings for the brightly lit exterior. A lot of trial and error has gone into understanding what to feed the software, as far as the raw image, in order to get a predictable result.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one uses a more traditional application of the technique, with one focus point trained on the interior brick and metal combined with a second shot that was focused without. Yeah, I know… as the kids in Quadrophenia would have remarked: wizard.
While we were doing the walk through, I was already hatching my plan for how to shoot this place. I had decided to spend a half hour or so inside the plant itself, and then walk widdershins (anticlockwise) around it. This decision was based on where I thought the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself would be hanging in the sky, during my visit to Carrie Furnace.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also described yesterday, I wish that I could offer you a granular and well understood picture of what you’re looking at, but I know very little about metals production and about steel in particular. Truth be told, the phrase that kept on popping up in my brain while shooting these images was ‘Triborough Bridge.’ Now… that’s something I know about.
A theory (originally offered by Robert Caro) which I’m fond of is that Robert Moses was the reason that the USA ended up being the 800 pound Gorilla during WW2. When Moses placed the steel orders for Triborough in 1932, the furnaces of Pittsburgh were reactivated, after their slumber in the early days of Great Depression. The steel supply chain was also activated, creating an economic and industrial wave which rippled out of Pittsburgh to the coal and iron mines of the interior via the railroads. A forest was cut down just to make the lumber needed for Triborough’s construction scaffolding. Some 31 million man hours, playing out in 134 cities across 20 states, went into Triborough, as Caro stated.
When Pearl Harbor occurred nine years later, it didn’t take too long for the United States to conjure up a brand new Pacific Fleet to the Japanese, for their consideration, because ‘hell with the lid off’ (as Mark Twain once described Pittsburgh) was all fired up and ready to rock. If Moses hadn’t brokered his power to build that massive bridge complex with its 17.5 miles of roadways in NY Harbor…
The steel in the Empire State Building was created at Carrie, as a note. That’s bit of trivia is something I learned off of a beer mug in a Pittsburgh bar and it seems to be true.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sorry, NYC slips back in sometimes… this is Pittsburgh… not…
I began my slow circling of the Carrie Furnace, with the camera mounted up on the Sirui Carbon Fiber tripod that I’ve been using for the last five years or so. It’s just light enough to be ‘carryable,’ and therefore I almost always have it with me. I seem to recall that I had the camera set up for ISO 100, F8, and exposure time was whatever it needed to be. I didn’t use the wired shutter release switch as I normally do, and just had the camera set to wait out a small delay after I hit the shutter button to ameliorate ‘shake.’ I opted for the Canon 24-105mm lens this time around. I had others with me, but the wide to telephoto range of this piece of glass was perfect for the site.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The yellow chains seen in the middle of the shot indicated ‘no go’ areas as designated by the Rivers of Steel people. They explained that these areas were unstable and could be dangerous, which is also why we were asked to wear hard hats. Situations like this are also where the virtue of using a zoom lens for this sort of location comes into play.
Back in Queens, I’d regularly get contacted by photographers who were interested in Newtown Creek but were a little worried about their safety or where they could go. I’d always gladly take them out for a walk, and pass on the things I’d learned over the years. Invariably, I’d find them walking onto slippery shoreline rocks, or doing some other dangerous stunt to get a close up of something. After they were done and safely back on the pavement, I’d say ‘isn’t that a zoom lens’?
Back tomorrow with more from Carrie Furnace.
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Carrie Furnace, part 1
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Rivers of Steel organization has been mentioned here before, in the context of a boat tour which they conducted on the Monongahela River which I had attended. Newtown Pentacle offered three posts about what was observed while onboard the boat – here are – part 1, part 2, part 3 of what I saw on that stormy day. Another one of the interesting programming offers found on the group’s website was a ‘photo safari.’ I bought a ticket for that one, and drove the Mobile Oppression Platform – as I call the Toyota – over to the community of Swissvale, PA., where the somewhat skeletal remains of the ‘Carrie Furnace’ steel mill still stands.
This facility was part of the U.S. Steel Homestead Steel Works, which was formerly occupied both sides of the Monongahela River in this area. The plant was built in 1881, and bought by Andrew Carnegie in 1883. Carnegie Steel soon operated what would become the largest steel mill in all the world here. Homestead was fed raw materials from hundreds if not thousands of miles away, coming to it from every direction, and carried by private railways and fleets of steamships. In 1901, Carnegie sold his company to JP Morgan’s U.S. Steel combine. By WW2, 15,000 people worked at the Homestead Works. In 1986, Homestead closed down.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Carrie Furnace was a blast furnace, which is something I wish I could offer you a long winded explanation of. Thing is, this topic is way outside of my personal or prior experiences. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years getting to understand how petroleum and coal are exploited industrially, back in NYC and specifically at Newtown Creek. I can give a speech on command about how gas is manufactured from coal or low grade oil, the commercially valuable by-products thereof, the pollutants and or toxins left behind by the process. I know precious little about metals manufacturing so no long winded explanation is on offer, just a long winded excuse. Google it, that’s what I’m doing.
Apparently, what’s still standing here on the 135 acre site of Carrie Furnace are the #6 and #7 furnaces, and several of the ‘out buildings.’ There’s also fragments of a rail transportation system hanging about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon arriving at the site, and there were probably about 20-25 other people with DSLR’s and fancy camera bags, the Rivers of Steel peeps asked us to sign waivers, and we were then handed hard hats. A guide from the group walked us through the places we would be allowed to go. There’s several spots in the buildings which are not stable, which the guide pointed out to us. Yellow chains were hung here and there, or yellow caution tape, which indicated ‘no go’ zones. Our guide walked us through and around the site as an introduction, and then she said ‘see you in a few hours’ and disappeared.
All of the shots in today’s post were captured during that introduction interval. Handheld snap shots, basically.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator has seen amazing things. A submarine’s nose being barged down the East River, while passing under Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve seen Cargo Ports and countless bridges, the Staten Island Ferry in dry dock, been onboard military ships, and even rode on a freight train, I’ve been inside/under/and all around the largest sewer plant in NYC and have also looked down into the drain that most of Manhattan’s toilet flush’s goes to. I’ve been inside the Manhattan Bridge, walked the Second Avenue Subway tunnel, and watched the Kosciuszcko Bridge be dissected and then blown up.
I seen some shit, but I ain’t never seen nothing like a steel plant, yo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We ended up in what seemed to be the main antechamber of Carrie, which was one level up from the ground. Everywhere you looked, there were flights of steel stairs and walkways. Pipes and conduits were absolutely flying all over the place. Rust was omnipresent.
The entire complex of relict machinery was functionally open to the environment. Freight rail was occasionally heard passing nearby, carrying raw material to the still functioning Edgar Thomson ‘Mon Valley Works’ steel mill which is probably about a mile/mile and a half away in Braddock. When you didn’t hear the rumble and clickity clack of passing rail, it was mainly birdsong and the chorus of insectivorous activity you’d associate with a riverfront meadow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was the last handheld shot for the day. After this, I set the camera up in tripod mode and got busy. I didn’t do the lens filters thing at all, as it wasn’t required.
The shot above was from more or less at the core of the place, and the machinery at the left side is part of one of the actual furnaces.
Back tomorrow.
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Pittsburgh 3 ways
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wamma lamma ding dong, I almost cannot wait to show all of you the posts scheduled for next week here at Newtown Pentacle, which detail one of the cooler experiences I’ve had so far, here in Pittsburgh. For this Friday post, however, it’s just three shots of the pretty city of Pittsburgh with its always dynamic atmosphere boiling in the sky.
Weather is very different here than it was back in NYC, which I’ve found myself starting to refer to as ‘back home’ or ‘the old neighborhood.’ I suppose that was inevitable.
It’s a volatile atmosphere that you’ll encounter here in Pittsburgh, due to the river valleys and the foot hills of the Appalachia Range’s interactions with the sky vault. A couple of weeks ago it was 89 degrees at 4 in the afternoon and then 54 degrees at midnight. You can leave the house in a driving rainstorm and by the time you get where you’re going, it’s blue sky and sunny – all in the space of 20 minutes. The sky’s gyrations aren’t muted by the presence of an ocean, here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We’ve been pretty lucky so far, weather wise. We moved out here during the high winter. Pittsburgh’s winters have a ferocious reputation, but as it turns out the 22/23 winter season here was the warmest and least snowy winter that this City has experienced in decades. That’s called a soft landing, lords and ladies. I fear we won’t get that sort of lucky again, given that this is an El Niño year.
Those dynamic skies, though. Lately, I find myself exposing the shots with the sky in mind. I’m of the belief that Pittsburgh’s iconic ‘Empire State Building’ or ‘Golden Gate Bridge’ is the sky itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next week is going to be fairly hardcore, with six image posts returning for an interval. I got to go somewhere that I found visually exciting, and under circumstance where I could ‘do my thing’ without any real interruption for multiple hours. Set up the tripod, compose shots, the whole shebang. Thereby…
…back next week, with what I saw when I got to visit Carrie Furnace.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
All wet on the Ohio River, part 2
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few more shots from a boat tour of the Ohio River here in Pittsburgh, offered by the Doors Open Pittsburgh organization, which were captured during a driving rain storm. As is always the case with such things, pretty much the minute that the boat we were on returned to dock, the clouds parted and it became sunny and lovely, but while we were onboard it was absolutely pissing down. Difficult photography weather, as the rain was accompanied by a precipitating mist.
That’s Brunot’s Island pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A strait of water separates Brunot from its neighbor – Neville Island – which is a lot larger and is ‘mixed use’ with heavy industrial activity at one end with a residential community found on the other. I drove over to Neville Island a while back to take a lookie loo at what’s there. It’s on my list for ‘interesting places’ which I intend on learning more about and waving the camera at in the future.
To my eye, that’s a former concrete plant, pictured above, nestled in amongst the trees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, the rain began to let up a bit as we were returning to the dock, but I dig the shot above for some reason. It’s got a moodiness to it that reminds me of adolescence. Wish I could tell you we did something exciting after debarking the boat, but friends from NYC were meant to be visiting us during the following week, so Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself did some food shopping and then went back to HQ to straighten up the joint and get it ‘guest ready.’
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
The Newtown Pentacle 