Joni Lohr
Artist Statement
In cities and towns that I visit across the country, I see ghosts and remnants of: powerful factories, lively urban neighborhoods, or small agricultural towns that have gone empty—left to rust and ruin. There is a spirit in these places that resist the rust and rot of their circumstances. These structures will never pass this way again, but the photographs remain to portray that at one time, they had a vibrant life.
Blue Windows, 2018, Photograph, $700.00
Introduced in the early 1900s by Albert Kahn Associates, industrial building technology used steel and reinforced concrete to allow more space for windows, giving workers better light and ventilation. In the ruins of the Fisher Body Plant 21, built in Detroit in 1919, the wall of windows remains.
Outlaw Station, 2017, Photograph, $700.00
The “Outlaw Station," built of cement, bricks, and petrified wood by stonemason Gran Norman in 1928, Glen Rose, Texas, is thought to have been a speakeasy during Prohibition and after that, possibly a gas station. Its stunning, ruin stands as a testimony to the builder’s inventiveness and creativity.
