Elizabethtown Gas, Elizabeth, from the series Meadowland

Ray Mortenson, Elizabethtown Gas, Elizabeth, from the series Meadowland, 1979, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ralph Gibson, 2023.50.1.7
Copied Ray Mortenson, Elizabethtown Gas, Elizabeth, from the series Meadowland, 1979, gelatin silver print, 10 5⁄8 x 12 3⁄4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ralph Gibson, 2023.50.1.7

Artwork Details

Title
Elizabethtown Gas, Elizabeth, from the series Meadowland
Artist
Date
1979
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
10 5⁄8 x 12 3⁄4 in.
Credit Line
Gift of Ralph Gibson
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — New Jersey — Elizabeth
Object Number
2023.50.1.7
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2023.50.1.7

Artwork Description

Anyone who has approached New York City from the south or west on the New Jersey Turnpike will recognize the reedy industrial landscape of Meadowland. Ray Mortenson worked there in the late 1970s with a view camera, a large-format device like those used by photographers in the nineteenth century to survey the American West. Like those earlier photographs, Mortenson's images show their subject in exquisite detail.
By the time he visited the Meadowlands, however, the site had suffered decades of environmental abuse. His photographs capture vistas of its dirt piles, train tracks, smokestacks, chemical tanks, garbage dumps, and stagnant pools. The prints shown here are from the full set of thirty-seven made by Mortenson, a master printer, for his book Meadowland, recently gifted to SAAM.