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Cuyahoga River
The Gund Foundation project was like a grant, as it gave me the chance to photograph in an area that I found profoundly invigorating. My subject was the Cuyahoga River. It was the path that led me through the landscape of Cleveland. Like a snake wriggling free of its winter skin, this "crooked river" twists and turns abruptly and often. The twenty bridges that punctuate the landscape in the downtown flats gave me the most pause. Like Erector sets for giants, these moveable bridges rise on command (the "Iron Curtain Bridge," the two Scherzer rolling lift bridges, and the Conrail lift bridge), swing ("Bobtail Swing Bridge"), and tilt back (the two B&O Railroad "jackknife" bridges) with all of their mechanical eccentricities visible. Cleveland's modern skyline looms near, as do the river quarries, clubs, and restaurants. Although still a working river, it's the confluence of the past and the present and the mixing of the urban, industrial, and rural all along the banks of the river that I tried to photograph.
About Lois Conner
Born 1951, Rockville Center, New York
Lives in New York City Early in her career, Lois Conner became "interested in the way that land retains the marks of the past and of the people who have lived on it." In 1982 she switched from an 8x10-inch view camera to a 7x17-inch banquet camera which, with its elongated rectangular format, enabled her to stress a long horizon line. Conner produces elaborately detailed negatives that she prints in platinum, giving each image distinctive qualities of light and atmosphere.
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