Inner loop Rochester NY

Transitions Rochester was a photography project which originated during the exhibition Nature as Artifice in the George Eastman House (now George Eastman Museum) of which Snelweg>Highways in the Netherlands was part of.

During the installment of Snelweg Theo Baart and I exchanged ideas with Alison Nordström (then Curator of Photographs at GEH) and photographer Rick Hock (then curator of VSW) about an international photo-project which would explore Rochester NY, the former company town (Kodak) dealing with urban sprawl, high unemployment rates and poverty.  We invited the local photographers Greg Halpern, Oscar Palacio and Juliana Muniz and the Dutch photographer Andrea Stultiens to join us.

My contribution Inner Loop reflects on the physical and mental boundaries symbolized by the circular Inner Loop, build in 1965 at the height of car culture. The Loop intersected densely populated neighborhoods and many buildings were demolished to make room for it. Over the years the Loop more or less became redundant and discussions about what to do with it have been ongoing since.