Stephen Mallon
"The Kick" New York Subway Reefing Photograph
2009

Name: "The Kick" New York Subway Reefing Photograph
Brand: Stephen Mallon
Price: 2150 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

C-Print Photograph, signed on reverse by the artist, Stephen Mallon. 20"x30" This photograph captures an unbelievable sight as a New York Subway Train car is being dropped in the Ocean. New York photographer, Stephen Mallon captures the moment just before thus icon of New York hits the surface of the water. The crane's arm visible as the crane sits on the edge of the barge. Stacks of subway cars await their fate and new life as components of an artificial reef off the East Coast of the United States. This is from the New York photographer's series, "Next Stop Atlantic," which capture the retirement of hundreds of New York City Subway cars to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. In a bold move, the NYC Transit authority joined the artificial reef building program off the East Coast of the US in 2000 and sent stripped and decontaminated subway cars off on barges to be dropped into the Ocean in order to build refuge for many species of fish and crustaceans which would colonize the structures. Mallon traces the progress of the train cars on their way towards their last voyage, majestic waves approach the viewer in these large scale photographs as they too are transported out to sea to behold the lifting and transfer of these massive machines. One photograph hauntingly depicts elements of nature creeping into their barren hulls, drifts of snow lines the walkways, a glimpse of sunshine streams through their removed doors as they wait in stacks to be carted off to sink to the dark depths of the ocean floor. Mallon's photographs elicit both the sadness and the beauty of cascading water overtaking these iconic figures of New York transit as they sink beneath the surface of the water; surges and sprays are caught in time. Stephen Mallon dedicated the last three years to following this endeavor, chronicling the last phase of NYC Transit's involvement in this program. The photographs that are presented in this exhibition capture the grandiosity of this effort; the weight of these 18-ton train cars can be felt as they are ferried off and plunged into the water. In "Next Stop Atlantic" Mallon determinedly tracks the final stage of the lives of these, once indispensable modes of transit for passengers on the New York subway lines, canonizing them in New York history. Stephen Mallon is a photographer and filmmaker who specializes in the industrial-scale creations of mankind at unusual moments of their life cycles. Mallon’s work blurs the line between documentary and fine art, revealing the industrial landscape to be unnatural, desolate and functional yet simultaneously also human, surprising and inspiring. It has been featured in publications and by broadcasters including The New York Times, National Geographic, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail, MSNBC, The Atlantic, GQ, CBS , the London Times and Vanity Fair . Mallon has exhibited in cities including Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis and New York, as well is in England and Italy. As David Schonauer wrote in Pro Photo Daily , “Mallon’s word harkens back to the heroic industrial landscapes of Margaret Bourke-White and Charles Sheeler, who glorified American steel and found art in its industrial muscle and smoke during the Great Depression.” He has also been compared to photographers including Edward Burtynsky, Thomas Struth and Chris Jordan. Stephen Mallon's photographs have been exhibited at The New York Transit Museum, NYU Kimmel gallery, The Brooklyn Public Library, The Visual Arts Center of New Jersery, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Mass Art, Michigan State University, Webster University, the Waterfront Museum in Brooklyn, NY. and are in numerous important international collections. Stephen Mallon is represented by Front Room Gallery in New York.

Creator:

Stephen Mallon (American)

Creation Year:

2009

Dimensions:

Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)

Medium:

C Print

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-