Dreams are both a function of memory and a projection of the future. These photographs are sequenced to create a realization of Henry Clune’s 1947 quote, “there is a feeling that if the great plant of the Eastman Kodak Company were removed from the cities environs a sign might be erected on the station platform
‘THIS WAS ROCHESTER.’”
Kodak employed 60,000 Rochesterians at its peak. Oversight at the advent of digital photography caused Kodak’s eventual bankruptcy in 2012. However, for close to a century being a “Kodak Man” was a sign of prosperity.
Curt Gerling’s book SMUGTOWN U.S.A. satirized Rochester’s 200 millionaires and how the social setting of Rochester’s Golden Era (1920s-50s) nurtured greed and nepotism. Kodak has its own chapter. Gerling’s tone is light-hearted, however his pages reveal Rochester’s undoing.
SMUG DREAM creates a fantastical reality of downtown Rochester’s streets, events and people. Historical references and the former economic dependence on Kodak create a collective memory throughout. The present is a quixotic landscape of esoteric puns and hapless pavement.
Utilizing Rochester’s former Inner Loop, a stretch of highway that encompasses downtown, I created a geographic perimeter for the work. The City of Rochester began filling the Inner Loop at its Eastern section in 2014 citing that the original layout created a physical and economic boundary for downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Throughout I have used several cameras, predominantly a Leica M2 with Kodak film and a Leica M9 with a Kodak sensor. All photographs were taken from 2013 through 2019.