Description
Robin Bailey
Kewpee Burgers, Lima, Ohio, 2018
Archival Pigment Print
Image size: 10” x 15”; paper 11” x 17"
Special Edition of 12 for CPA
$200 for CPA members, $250 for non-members
This image is part of a long term project titled: Our Town…fading Glimpses of the Midwest, which is at the center of my photographic endeavors. Kewpee Burgers, Lima, Ohio, is part of my exploration of older vernacular neighborhoods and features structures as they appear today.
This work is about survivors — those buildings and neighborhoods that have somehow persisted amidst the constant pressure of economic decline, urban revitalization, demolition, and the continuing loss of the Midwest’s unique identity. It is also about the persistence of the people of the Midwest as seen in what they have been able to preserve; and, though devoid of people, these images overflow with a human presence.
Rooted in a documentary style derived from the Farm Security Administration’s (FSA) photographic project of the 1930s and ’40s, these images are formal and impartial views of the Midwest, which quietly emote a sense of home.
Much like the Midwest, these simple, quiet scenes evoke a sense of modesty and subtleness, allowing the viewer to appreciate the commonplace— sprinkled with glimpses of struggle, beauty, intrigue, humor, and love.
Robin W. Bailey is a photographer, based in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. This image is part of an ongoing project entitled: “Fading Glimpses of the Midwest” and was recently seen in a Center for Photographic Art show titled: “Midwestern Nights”. A product of the Midwest, Robin was born into a working-class family and grew up in the manufacturing towns of Northeast Ohio. Robin graduated with a BA in English Literature from the Ohio State University.
Robin’s photographic work is rooted in the desire to document the surviving vestiges of quintessential Midwestern towns and neighborhoods before they were devastated by systematic economic decline, urban revitalization and demolition, which started in the 1970s. Paying homage to the survivors and preserving the historical past are central themes in his work.
