MITCH EPSTEIN | POCA HIGH SCHOOL AND AMOS COAL POWER PLANT, WEST VIRGINIA, 2004 (FROM AMERICAN POWER)

Mitch Epstein, American Power (Göttingen, 2009), pl. 2

For these two photographs (also see lot 52), two of the most widely reproduced images from Mitch Epstein’s American Power series, reveal the complexities of the American relationship with power production and how Big Energy influences our communities and individual spaces. Coming out of the documentary tradition, Epstein’s five-year undertaking sheds light on our unwavering reliance on natural resources. By photographing the massive production structures that exist near homes and communities, he wittily reveals our interactions (or lack thereof) with those giant, ever-active engines that provide us with the power we often take for granted.