Jean Miele
As Brooklyn is surrounded by water, so are we all surrounded by the virtually invisible remnants of our own history.
“Vestiges of Industry” celebrates the worn and ravaged beauty of pre-computer age machines and technology. This selection of prints features images of Red Hook’s Todd Shipyard, the Fireboat J.J. Harvey, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard – three touchstones of New York’s vanishing seafaring heritage.
1. Red Hook’s Todd Shipyard, which employed nearly 20,000 workers during WWII, has as its only remaining evidence two non-operational cranes in Brooklyn’s IKEA parking lot.
2. Fireboat J.J. Harvey was a tour-de-force of maritime technology. Constructed in Brooklyn in 1930, it was saved from the scrap heap in 1999, and is kept alive only by the volunteer efforts of a devoted group of naval enthusiasts.
3. The Brooklyn Navy Yard’s history is centuries long, and virtually synonymous with the history of shipbuilding in the United States. It survives today as a not-for-profit industrial park squeezed into the no-man’s land between Fort Greene, Willamsburg and Vinegar Hill.
If you listen carefully, these images will whisper to you. They tell their stories and transport you to a pre-skyscraper New York as surely as a time machine. Their presence, and the ongoing disappearance of things and places like them, begs the question, “What became of the people who forged these places – who left work one day, never to return?” It is a small leap then, to wonder: “What will become of us, and the things we make?”
BIO: Photographer. Sailor. Third-generation Brooklynite. Jean Miele is a commercial and fine-art photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally and acquired by collectors worldwide. His love of science, history, and maritime adventure form the backbone of his lovingly-crafted “Vestiges of Industry” series. For current exhibition and workshop listings, please visit: www.jeanmiele.com
CHECKLIST OF WORKS:
“Secret” Transceiver Towers. Building 1. Brooklyn Navy Yard. November 2011. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Shop Doors. Brooklyn Navy Yard. November 2011.mArchival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Engine Room Details. Fireboat J.J. Harvey. NY. May 2012. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Hand-painted DC Voltmeter. Fireboat J.J. Harvey. NY. December 2011. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Bow Monitor. Fireboat J.J. Harvey. NY. October 2011. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Ledger Book. Todd Shipyard. Brooklyn, NY. June 2004. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Crane Hook. Todd Shipyard. Brooklyn, NY. June 2004. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
End-Grain Industrial Wood Floor. Todd Shipyard. Brooklyn, NY. June 2004. Archival Pigment Print. 12×12″ framed to 19.75×19.75.
Photos © Jean Miele 2012. All Rights Reserved.
No reproduction without the written consent of the photographer.
