Lackawanna, New York, October 24, 1977
In his 1977 Series Hard Times Come to Steeltown, American photographer Stephen Shore shows us the decline and desolation of factory towns across the Midwest. Originally commissioned by Fortune magazine, the pictures documented the period after steel plants began laying off thousands of workers in small factory towns across America. Shore, then aged 30, travelled through western New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio with a 5×4-inch view camera
Shore rediscovered his work in 2017, and i them saw why President Trump’s pledge to restore the rust belt had hit home with many voters. “I realised that – 40 years later – the children of these people I’d photographed grew up in economically depressed areas of the Rust Belt,” says Shore. “These were the people who voted Trump into office.”
26 October 1977, Evans House, 17 Teresa Place, South Buffalo, New York
25 October 1977, Caldwell Street, Lackawanna, New York
Youngstown, Ohio
Raphael Rentas, Louis Olivera and Herminio Cadona, Campbell, Ohio, October 28, 1977
Washington Street, Struthers, Ohio, October 27, 1977
James Murphy and Solomon Felder, Campbell, Ohio, October 27, 1977
Wilson Avenue, Campbell, Ohio, October 27, 1977
Eddie’s Wagon Wheel, Bridge Street, Struthers, Ohio, October 27, 1977
Ridge Road, Lackawanna, New York, October 26, 1977
H.M. Elliot, Texas Hots, 2693 South Park Avenue, Lackawanna, New York, October 25, 1977
Gilbridge Street at Ridge Road, Lackawanna, New York, October 24, 1977
Pictures by Stephen Shore. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York and Sprüth Magers. Hard Times Come to Steeltown forms part of a new group show Rust by Bernd & Hilla Becher, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Stephen Shore at Sprüth Magers in Berlin.
