Chemical Plants

During the 1980's, I had the opportunity of photographing a number of refineries and chemical production facilities. In particular, I had visited a couple of huge complexes in the South that were a part of Union Carbide's operations in the US. I had always been fascinated by these futuristic cities of pipes, towers, and foul smells -- architectural marvels of form following (obscure) function.

I wanted to photograph these sites as I saw them, not necessarily as the company wanted them to be seen.

These are dangerous environments, and one does not wander unaccompanied or without safety training and protective gear. The accidental release of toxic substances, gas or liquid, is a real and constant threat. As a result, these vast acres of contained chemical reactions, like coal mines and oil rigs, are off-limits to the public. Almost nothing of nature grows there, and very few people have any reason to even visit.

In July of 1988 I spent a week at the Seadrift plant near Victoria, Texas, and at the Taft plant just north of New Orleans. It was very hot and humid -- conditions that were compounded by heat generated within the complex itself. I produced a 50-print portfolio of the work.

The Exxon Valdez spill happened in March of 1989, and the doors to any facility even remotely connected to the oil or chemical industry closed to the press everywhere.