Polaroid Exhibition Captures Beauty of Industrial America (PHOTOS)

Photography folklore tells you if you shake a polaroid print before it is finished developing, it will stay faded forever. In Susan Mikula's exhibition American Bond, it is ambiguous whether the liminal forms captured in her prints are fading because the polaroids or the subjects themselves were shaken up too early.

Mikula captures industrial sites along the Gulf, Southwestern coast and Eastern seaboard. Their inability to change fast enough is captured in her photographs taken with expired film; the sites' functionality and form fade into obscurity before our eyes. Mikula's images elicit a strangely emotional reaction to these machines; they do not appear threatening or powerful as machines are so often presented. Rather, they look lost and abandoned, hanging on the verge of obscurity.

According to her official statement: "For Mikula, the work, the loss, the lines, the light, the promise of these spaces is beautiful. Uncomplicatedly beautiful."

'American Bond, Selections from the Cycle, Recent Photographs' will be showing at George Lawson Gallery from October 19-November 19, 2011.
Opening Reception will be held October 22 from 5:30-7:30 pm