Photos of America’s declining steel towns in the ‘70s
- Text by Huck
- Photography by Stephen Shore
In the late 1970s, an area in middle America that would eventually become known as the ‘rust belt’ was on the precipice of disastrous decline. Mass layoffs were devastating steel manufacturing centres, as foreign competition and a drop in demand rocked the American industry.
In the summer of 1977, photographer Stephen Shore, then age 30, was sent on an assignment for Fortune magazine to document the situation in middle America. He would travel to Pennsylvania, Ohio and across New York state to photograph the towns and the people impacted by the crisis over a two-week period. The photos Shore captured from this trip are collected in a new book, titled Steel Town (Mack Books).
The year before Shore’s visit, the Bethlehem Steel company had laid off thousands of workers in Lackawanna, New York and Johnstown, Ohio. These factory towns were built on the jobs provided by the steel mills, and the decades leading up to the crisis had largely been defined by prosperity and a booming industry. But by the late ’70s this all changed, as workers witnessed the decimation of their livelihoods.
Shore met with the steelworkers who had been thrown out of work by plant closures. “The unions arranged for me to meet different workers,” Shore recalls, “who were all completely cooperative and welcoming”. His photos also capture their suddenly melancholic worlds, from the deserted factories, to lonely bars, to fading high streets, and their homes. These photos “transcend the moment,” Shore reflects, “they offer an emotional strain that isn’t specifically about what’s happening at the time”.
Revisiting the photos over forty years later made Shore reflect on their relevance today and how the economic, political and social fall out from this period is still being felt. “When I was looking at the photos in 2017, the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency,” he says, “I saw that the parts of the country that had in previous years voted Democrat that had swung to Donald Trump were in fact these very areas [in my photographs].”
And so I saw some of the seeds of dissatisfaction in the lives of the people I was photographing 40 years before.”
Steel Town is available now on Mack Books.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
In photos: The gritty golden age of the UK’s skateboarding scene
Elsewhere — A new book from Science Vs. Life founder Neil Macdonald explores the characters, photographs and ephemera that defined the sport in the ’80s and ’90s, just before the internet and commercialisation changed it forever.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The London passport picture studio that became an unexpected repository of 20th century stars
Passport Photo Service — From Mick and Bianca Jagger to Muhammad Ali and Poly Styrene, the unassuming Oxford Street store was frequented by hundreds of musicians, actors, artists and more over its 70 years of operation.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Sophie Green’s maximalist, technicolour vision of Britain’s fringes
Tangerine Dreams — The photographer has spent over a decade documenting the rituals, subcultures and social gatherings that form the collaged fabric of the UK’s society. A new exhibition at the Martin Parr Foundation celebrates her work and the communities she captures.
Written by: Roxana Diba
When the Chelsea Hotel was New York’s countercultural epicentre
Closed doors, open minds — Albert Scopin’s new photobook collects photographs that were once thought to be lost, documenting the city’s creative scene that gathered during the building’s 1969 to 1971 heyday.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Glasgow’s Calabash is the restaurant the African diaspora call home
Home Cooking — Having been open in the heart of the city for 15 years, the Kenyan rooted eatery has become a community staple for migrants and Scottish-born locals alike.
Written by: Lisa Maru
Andrea Modica’s 40 year long Italian Story
Storia — The Italian American photographer first ventured to her ancestral country in 1987, beginning a decades long exploration and documentation of it.
Written by: Miss Rosen
