For decades, a collection of northeastern and midwestern states – including Ohio – have been inextricably linked to rust, the choice pejorative adjective in the christening of the rust belt and rust bowl. For residents, the monikers are abject denigrators, but the regional epithets were coined in response to incontestable fact: there was – and is – a bellyful of relics that represent a resounding decline in the heavy industry once vital to the development of the region; redundant machination that left an indelible, oxidized patchwork of decay and a less tangible community-wide mental blister in its wake.
Despite the bleak overtones, recent decades have brought brilliant shades of color, a youthful vision that gives new context and life, and creates characters who fashion a sense of place that's aware of the urban blight but not defined by it. It is in this spirit that the founding editors of rustwire.com, Kate Giammarise and Angie Schmitt, conceived "Rust Wire's Big Urban Photography Project," which opens July 7 at 5:30 pm at Cleveland Public Art, 1951 West 26th Street. Over the course of two years, Giammarise and Schmitt solicited images from documentary and fine arts photographers who could capture the realities of life in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and more. The tastefully curated result is the Urban Photography Project, featuring 30 works by 16 photographers, including seven from Cleveland. Artists include Cleveland’s David Bergholz, Bridget Callahan, Billy Delfs, Ben Seigel and Michael Reilly, and other photographers from Youngstown, Erie, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and New York City.
"It is sad what has happened to these neighborhoods, no getting around it."
"I think the problems of the rust belt are really well suited to be examined through photography as a medium,." says Schmitt. "One of the goals of our site is to raise the national profile of our region's struggle. The photo project is part of that." To wit, Rust Wire's mission is to explore socioeconomic issues and promising transformation strategies in this region through photography, essays, opinion and original reporting from residents and ex-pats. Rust Wire readers responded, submitting new images every week. "I think the reason it has been a success is that people, especially visual people, are kind of drawn to and fascinated by industrial landscapes," says Schmitt. "People are trying to understand what went wrong here. All the proud history and the terrible decline, it's all on display. I think as a young person, it's hard to look at that day in and day out and not be affected." (l-r: photos by Sean Posey and Mark Stahl)
