Historic Industrial Mills

This article could be titled “Industrial Decay”, but that would be too negative. Our visits to three “abandoned” mills – iron, silk & wool – and a machine shop, underlined how industries transformed America from a mostly rural economy during the 19th and early 20th century to an industrial world power. Industrial growth was rapid, dynamic, and very exciting. This is the past that we try to capture.
All of our images are black & white because we love the drama, tones, and depth found with B&W. We find beauty and design in common man-made objects and scenes, and we are always conscious of capturing light and shadow to create a mood or suggest a story.
Because we are often in very dark scenes – dark cathedral crypts and old industrial warehouses – our camera choice is the Sony A7S, which features a specialized chip for capturing light and detail in very dark scenes. We travel very lightly with just one broad-range zoom lens – the Sony 24-240mm. For the images in this article,...