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  • Adaptations
    Adaptations
    6 images
  • Antarctica
    Antarctica
    1 gallery
  • Antarctica Prints
    Antarctica Prints
    33 images
  • Antarctic Peninsula
    Antarctic Peninsula
    3 galleries
  • Antarctic Resolution
    Antarctic Resolution
    114 images
  • Anthracite
    Anthracite
    54 images
    The Anthracite region of North East Pennsylvania is a unique area where hard coal, or anthracite, is mined for use as a home heating fuel, as well as in industry. Included are photographs of the landscape, towns, patches, coal breakers, and the unique architecture of the hard coal region.
  • Asylum
    Asylum
    64 images
    Photographs of Asylums and State Hospitals in the Northeast US region.
  • Bannerman's Island
    Bannerman's Island
    19 images
    Bannerman's Island Arsenal & Castle are located on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River north of Cold Spring New York. These are a selection of photographs, some of which were included in my book "Modern Ruins, Portraits of Place in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
  • Bazaar (flea market)
    Bazaar (flea market)
    56 images
    Bazaar is a collection of photographs which were taken at various flea markets, antique stores and garage sales around the New England area.
  • Bethlehem Steel
    Bethlehem Steel
    75 images
    Photographs of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem Pennsylvania after the mill closings, but before the property was turned into a casino. It is a unique look at a fascinating mill, which employed thousands of people over its 100 plus year in operation. Photographs available in color & B&W.
  • Cape Canaveral
    Cape Canaveral
    62 images
    Kennedy Space Center photographs, showing Apollo Saturn V rocket images, Apollo and Gemini Mission Control hardware, and landscape photographs from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the abandoned launch complexes located at Cape Canaveral.
  • Carrie Furnace
    Carrie Furnace
    32 images
    Photographs are available in both color and B&W. Carrie Furnace in Rankin PA, is a former Carnegie Steel Company mill. The Carrie Furnace is located outside of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. This site is a surviving monument of the giant steel empire built by Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th and early 20th century. The blast furnaces are on the opposite side of the Mon River from the once massive mills located in Homestead. The Carrie Furnaces supplied the Homestead mills with iron from its 200 foot high blast furnaces. The molten iron was transported across the river to the Homestead Works via the hot metal bridge in cigar shaped brick lined rail cars. From there it would be transferred to two story high ladles and poured into the open hearth furnaces. The Furnaces were charged with limestone and other ingredients to make the final product, Steel. The story of Rankin covers over 100 years of history and growth. The homestead workers suffered much under the hand of Carnegie and Frick during the strike and walkout of 1892 and the following decades. The Pinkerton guards were called in by Frick to break the strike and usher in new workers, but the Homestead strikers saw them coming up the river in two barges and a shootout ensued between the Pinkerton guards and the striking workers. After a 12 hour shootout the Pinkerton guards surrendered. Days later the Pennsylvania Militia occupied Homestead with hundreds of troops. Troops moved into the steel yards and within a week the mill was working again with imported workers under the protection of the militia. The strike was broken and the workers found themselves out of work.
  • Chemistry Lab
    Chemistry Lab
    24 images
    The chemistry lab located at the Tahawus mine in Tahawus, NY
  • Coal Breaker
    Coal Breaker
    30 images
    St Nicholas Coal Breaker
  • Contemporary arts grant
    Contemporary arts grant
    10 images
  • D&H Yard
    D&H Yard
    15 images
    D&H Yard in Watervliet, NY
  • Djupavik
    Djupavik
    38 images
  • Fine Art Prints
    Fine Art Prints
    30 images
    A compilation of the favorite photographs of visitors to this website.
  • Holy Land
    Holy Land
    18 images
  • Holy Land USA
    Holy Land USA
    27 images
  • Housatonic River
    Housatonic River
    67 images
    The Housatonic River photographs are an effort to explore and reflect on the river environment which I have lived near most of my life. This project started with photographing the upper east branch of the Housatonic, which runs through my backyard. I was drawn to this hidden ravine by the unexpected wildness, in a suburban setting, of the river and surrounding landscape. What quickly became apparent was that the industrial history of the river would play a part in this project. I found moss grown bricks, ceramics, glass and old pipes in the river bed among the stones and logs. The Housatonic had been utilized by industry for generations, and the river can be seen as a central element around which paper and woolen mills, communities and the cultural history of the river valley formed. What remains of the early industrial infrastructure are the substantial works - the foundations, dams and canals - which lie hidden among the tangled undergrowth of the river banks. There is an innate beauty in the way these aging relics are subsumed into the landscape. They interest me as a way of tracing the evolution of the man altered landscape, and its reflection of changing technologies and economies.
  • Hudson River
    Hudson River
    32 images
  • Iceland
    Iceland
    1 gallery
  • Kickstarter South Pole 2019
    Kickstarter South Pole 2019
    61 images
  • Mt Loretto Girls Orphanage
    Mt Loretto Girls Orphanage
    50 images
  • NY Rt 22ish
    NY Rt 22ish
    44 images
    Photographs along and near NY Rt 22
  • Paper Mill
    Paper Mill
    51 images
  • Polaroids
    Polaroids
    34 images
    Polaroids - most are actually made with Fujifilm peel apart instant film photographed with an old 1967 Polaroid 250 Land Camera. Most of the B&W images are from Fuji FP-3000B film, an instant film that has now been discontinued. Both the print and the negative from this film are usable, the negative is a paper negative and gives a unique image. The color shots are from Fuji FP-100C film, which is still currently available.
  • RAAW
    RAAW
    57 images
  • Rail Lines
    Rail Lines
    72 images
    The Rail Lines project is a photographic exploration of the landscapes along the railway lines of the north east. A reoccurring experience of photographing along rail lines is finding things left on the landscape by previous generationsu2014old buildings, large structures, signs, modified topography, mounds on the landscapeu2014without stories attached to explain them. They are dislocated bits of history without a narrative. Much of my work explores these places which occupy the landscape which have lost their references. They hint at a history and social structure, their incompleteness encourages story making to fill the gaps. My interest in rail lines evolved from their having strong ties to the development of cities and towns across the country. These lines changed the landscape of the country. They provide a path through the landscape where history and culture are concentrated. Traveling rail lines provides access to places which owe their existence to the rail. These areas reveal layers of historyu2014older buildings and structures can be discovered like fossils amid the newer layers of architecture. The landscape accumulates memories and displays its own history. It is the sum of the events that have occurred in that place.
  • Recent/Random
    Recent/Random
    79 images
  • Seaview
    Seaview
    24 images
  • South Pole
    South Pole
    76 images
    Photographs at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
  • Svalbard
    Svalbard
    9 galleries
  • Tahawus Mine
    Tahawus Mine
    32 images
    The Tahawus mine site is located in northern New York State near the abandoned town of Tahawus, in the High Peaks region. The mine has a long history in the area, beginning with the construction of the Mcintyre blast furnace in the area in the early 1800's. Iron ore was mined nearby and iron and wrought iron were produced from the furnace and works. That operation was abandoned when the impurities in the ore were making it difficult for the existing technology to properly process it. Those impurities were titanium. During WW2 National Lead opened the Tahawus mine for processing the titanium that was found there. The operation closed in 1982, and the buildings were demolished in 2005-2006.
  • Taxidermy
    Taxidermy
    28 images
    My interest in taxidermy animals can be traced to my first job after college, working for an architect in NYC, where I was tasked with measuring and drawing the entire floor plans of the American Museum of Natural History. Our escort for the fieldwork at the museum was a lifelong employee who guided us through the labyrinth of back offices and laboratories, unlocking storage room doors and cabinets, revealing the hidden collections of birds, mammals, fish and other specimens located in the various departments throughout the museum. This experience hooked me in a way that I didn't fully realize until more recent visits to natural history museums. I was immediately drawn to the taxidermy animals, which appear to be real animals, more or less, but as you may know, are actually just the skin of the animal, draped over a supporting armature. They have elements of sculpture, including the taxidermistu2019s vision of what the animal should look like. Each specimen becomes a stand-in for the species, the symbol by which we understand the rest of that species by. These animals become the object on which we can project our understanding of the real animal, how it lives, what its behavior is, how it gets its food, where it builds its nest or makes its den. They are objects of memory, remembering their origins, their species, their environment by their shape, color, evolution. Iu2019m interested in the objectness of the taxidermy animals, how they carry meaning and information forward. The act of removing them from nature and propping them up in museums tasks them with carrying the orderings and systems of science, illuminating accumulated knowledge about their species. They still look like animals, with their many meanings attached - as totems or spirit animals, their various religious associations, their place in mythology and stories. They become stand inu2019s for the inability to experience the animal in the wild. They are nature presented in an organized and ordered way that reflects the larger ordering of biological classification. There is a tension caused by the presence of the animal and its pose, vs. the static nature of the taxidermy object. This is enhanced by the still photograph, where it can be difficult to tell if the animal is real or not. Subtle (or not so subtle) clues, including the proximity of the animal to the camera, give away the nature of the object, but there are moments when you are not sure what you are looking at. This is especially true with photographs of dioramas. We are attracted to animals, there is a magnetism at work, an innate interest in what they look like, how they behave.These photographs are a study of these hybrid object which the animals have become, one which is at once visually interesting, fascinating and somewhat disturbing.
  • The Boatyard
    The Boatyard
    107 images
    The Boatyard is a marine wreckers yard located in New York City, where many steam tugs, ferry's, and other boats have found their resting place. I first visited the Boatyard in 1987 (the grainy Tri-X B&W film), and made return trips in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
  • Travel Places
    Travel Places
    15 galleries
    Travel Photographs
  • West Indies Plantations
    West Indies Plantations
    122 images
    Photographs of abandoned sugar plantations on the island of St. John (formerly the Danish West Indies)in the US Virgin Islands.

Portraits of Place - Photographs by Shaun O'Boyle

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