Tracy Schmid  Artist Post 1




Taiwan Jang -- Stained Ground

1. Taewon Jang is a Korean photographer. In his collection titled Stained Ground is a collection of photographs which focus on pictures of abandon factories. He has photographed more than 450 different factories through Korea, Japan, and the United States. Seventy seven of these photos are included in this series.  He wants to expand this collection to factories and industrial areas in Europe. His later work has began to include active and operating facilities too. He has stated this series was inspired by his father who worked in a factory for many years. His collection includes factories such as power plants, steel mills, nuclear reactors, mining sites, etc. He does extensive research on these factories. Lots of planning goes into choosing the areas he wants to shoot. He is hoping to add pictures from Europe in the near future.

2. When working of this series of pictures Jang has chosen to make the pictures at night, in the fog, rain, or other not so perfect weather situations. He normally shoots the images on a large format camera with exposures up to eight hours. Jang believes this creates an apocalyptic twilight with vibrant colors. His series shows scenes of abandonment and decay, how technology has laid waste to lots of locations throughout the world. His later work though did begin to show activity, life renewed, etc., when making photographs of active factories. This series was published in a book under his name published by Hatje Cantz.

3. When I looked at this series the one thing that stood out to me was the bright and vibrant colors. It amazed me that he could get these wonderful images during the night or adverse weather conditions. There seemed to be a challenge or adrenaline rush when taking this pictures since he would sometime run into issues with security guards, wild animals, and such. When this occurred he always returned at a later date to get the perfect pictures. I really liked the sense of crossing lines to complete his series. This series made me look at the fact all things are futile, easily passing with time then again on the other side it made me realize that industry is ever changing and continually improving. No matter how many factories are abandon or left to face the forces of nature and disarray there will always been others to take its place. When he expanded his photos to include active factories today that are alive and well. It made me realize how powerful industry is, the strength that comes with them. I believe that had these photos been taken in the daylight or during perfect weather they would not have the same effect. You would not see images as powerful as they seemed in the light of night. It has been said that this series shows the value of focusing on abandon and active industries shows that the evolution of industry is an unstoppable force -- always changing.