3rd place
bronze star award
John Eaton Eaton
united states 
title
Heavy Metal
HEAVY METAL
This portfolio celebrates the centenary of the Colonel Francis G. Ward Pumping Station, brought online in 1915 to provide water to the city of Buffalo.
Water flows under gravity from the Roundhouse Intake, 6,600 feet offshore in Lake Erie, along a 12x12 foot tunnel to the Pumping Station. The Station houses five steam-driven reciprocating pumps: each pump weighs 1,100 tons, stands 60 feet tall, has two 20-foot diameter 30-ton flywheels, and could produce 1,200 horsepower, discharging 30 million gallons of water per day through 48-inch diameter pipes.
The pumps stand like a row of sleeping giants in splendid majesty, hand-crafted from larger than life building blocks, monumental silent reminders of an earlier heyday. In these images I’m documenting the pump’s gargantuan scale, muscular elements and intimate details, as testament to the imposing grandeur of an awe-inspiring industrial engineering achievement, a public-works temple to civic pride.
Biography
Born and raised in England, but living in California since the late 1980’s, my photographic skills are self-taught through decades of patience and practice. The potential of black and white photography first enthralled and excited me as a teenager when my father lent me his Kodak fold-out camera to take on a school trip to Brussels and Paris . I bought my first camera in 1966 (a used twin-lens Yashica), followed by a succession of various 35mm and medium-format film cameras -- today I use digital rangefinder cameras.
I’m energized in exploring images of what I see around me, especially architecture and landscape (the interest in architecture comes from the rest of my family -- my father, brother and son are all architects). I’m fascinated by the form and function of buildings that men and women create and equally by the infinite forms that nature creates.
Ever since that first experience back in 1958, black and white photography has always been my first love -- the simplicity, elegance, drama, timeliness and richness that it can bring to an image for me drives a more visceral response. I’m excited by the emotional ‘punch’ that black and white images bring in this particular context – the contrasts between light and dark, areas of luminance and tonality, and the abstractions of shapes and forms -- that “special” quality that heightens the emotion and impact of the image.
www.johneatonphotography.com
www.englishmedievalcathedrals.com
back to gallery
entry description
HEAVY METAL
This portfolio celebrates the centenary of the Colonel Francis G. Ward Pumping Station, brought online in 1915 to provide water to the city of Buffalo.
Water flows under gravity from the Roundhouse Intake, 6,600 feet offshore in Lake Erie, along a 12x12 foot tunnel to the Pumping Station. The Station houses five steam-driven reciprocating pumps: each pump weighs 1,100 tons, stands 60 feet tall, has two 20-foot diameter 30-ton flywheels, and could produce 1,200 horsepower, discharging 30 million gallons of water per day through 48-inch diameter pipes.
The pumps stand like a row of sleeping giants in splendid majesty, hand-crafted from larger than life building blocks, monumental silent reminders of an earlier heyday. In these images I’m documenting the pump’s gargantuan scale, muscular elements and intimate details, as testament to the imposing grandeur of an awe-inspiring industrial engineering achievement, a public-works temple to civic pride.
about the photographer
JOHN EATON, ARPSBiography
Born and raised in England, but living in California since the late 1980’s, my photographic skills are self-taught through decades of patience and practice. The potential of black and white photography first enthralled and excited me as a teenager when my father lent me his Kodak fold-out camera to take on a school trip to Brussels and Paris . I bought my first camera in 1966 (a used twin-lens Yashica), followed by a succession of various 35mm and medium-format film cameras -- today I use digital rangefinder cameras.
I’m energized in exploring images of what I see around me, especially architecture and landscape (the interest in architecture comes from the rest of my family -- my father, brother and son are all architects). I’m fascinated by the form and function of buildings that men and women create and equally by the infinite forms that nature creates.
Ever since that first experience back in 1958, black and white photography has always been my first love -- the simplicity, elegance, drama, timeliness and richness that it can bring to an image for me drives a more visceral response. I’m excited by the emotional ‘punch’ that black and white images bring in this particular context – the contrasts between light and dark, areas of luminance and tonality, and the abstractions of shapes and forms -- that “special” quality that heightens the emotion and impact of the image.
www.johneatonphotography.com
www.englishmedievalcathedrals.com
back to gallery
