Sunday, July 27, 2008

Industrial Meets Art


 The temperature was well into  the 90's when my photography buddy, Bill and I headed to Sloss Furnaces for a little field trip. ( In our defense, we did question whether it was a good plan.)   About 15 minutes into our shooting expedition we confirmed that our timing was off by about 2 months. We forged on.  The heat we were experiencing was nothing compared to the temperature when Sloss Furnaces was in its prime.  This place has been lovingly preserved, painted, and tended.   There is truly a feeling of stepping back in time when Sloss Furnaces was instrumental in making Birmingham  the "Magic City."

An earlier Sloss post  was on July 3,2008

18 comments:

angela said...

So furnace was also an apt description of the weather! Love that intense red...is it rusty or paint?
Thanks for your comment on my post office post. I'm happy yopu came across a helpful employee while in Paris. Usually they can be quite surly..

Virginia said...

Angela,
This is rust and a rusty red paint that most of the "innards" are painted. Neat huh! We are use to surly here in the US as well. I think the Parisian post office employee could read the look of complete dismay on my face. i just handed her a wad of Euros and let her work her magic on the stamp machine. Let me add that I sometimes have trouble with stamp machines here-HA I do think my idea of a Chardonnay machine in all post offices has merit.

Harry Makertia said...

Virginia, you have a high quality of taste when you took picture. I don't know how you did it, I love how you manage the angle.

Our traditional barbeque called satay is slices of meat (beef, chicken or lamb) on bamboo skewer. It's barbequed on charcoal fire. It serves with peanut-soy-chillie sauce.

Chris said...

We went to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis yesterday and tried to later walk around downtown. . . .wrong time of year. When i saw your furnace photo, my first thought was that you went the wrong time, too. ;-)

RE: Splenda. . . .I am a huge Splenda fan. . . .use it for everything I make. I have quite a few recipes I adapted for use with it, including, as I noted, the pie recipes. No one can tell the difference. Is Splenda (I don't know the parent company offhand.) located in B'ham?

Sending you a private email later today, btw.

melanie said...

Très belle photo industrielle ! Et merci de votre commentaire sur mon blog. Je vous mets en favoris !

Eki said...

Sometimes I think that industry, being mechanical and productivity oriented, is the nemesis of art ... but as you show here, they are not ... well, not always. It's nice, Virginia. This photo could be a perfect shot for the upcoming theme day: Metal.

Kris McCracken said...

I love it. Industrial zones can be tricky to shoot in colour, but you’ve done really well with this one!

Bob Crowe said...

Yes, industrial, but there look to be formal design elements and the intense red seems somehow Asian. I expect to see Indiana Jones bursting through pursued by lord-knows-what.

Steve Buser said...

THe furnace was probably a cool place compared to New Orleans this time of year.

I have heard of the Sloss Furnace from someone hear just about a week ago. You have whetted my appetite further. I will have to put it on my to do list. As a back up I will make sure it is on my bucket list.

I got you're photo, I will email you back. Sorry we had the grandkids in this week and things are a little backed up

Unknown said...

I'm glad you made it through okay! :) What we do for our photography, no? I love the rich color of this shot, Virginia. It's beautiful.

Thank you for stopping by Seguin and leaving me the nice comment. I have enjoyed looking around Birmingham. I hope to get out there one day this fall for my company, CMC. Are you familiar with us?

Rob said...

Love this shot, perfect colors, textures, and geometric shapes. Thanks for braving the extreme heat for this one!

Jilly said...

This is fascinating. To read about the Sloss Furnaces but also to see this lovely image. There's something about rusty surfaces that are so interesting in a photograph. There's such strength in this image.

Jilly said...

I forgot to say 'love the music!' - it has started my day perfectly. Thanks.

Halcyon said...

Neat photo. Will we be seeing more of the furnaces?

Anonymous said...

Very nice photo. Industrial art can be absolutely stunning if captured well.

Talking of furnaces, it's boiling here in England at the moment. *wipes brow*

Ming the Merciless said...

It looks pretty arty to me.

I can understand the heat. Yikes!

diverter valve said...

i like the colors! its really vibrant. truly industrial met art! great shots.

pressure vessels said...

great photos. i like the angles and the colors. the concept is nice.I like your blog as well. very nice.
keep on posting.