Aqua Via: Images From The San Francisco Water System Improvement Program
Aqua Via: Images From The San Francisco Water System Improvement Program
In 2002, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission embarked on a $4.6 billion seismic upgrade to its water system to ensure that the people of Northern California have access to safe and reliable drinking water, even in the event of a natural disaster. Built in the early to mid-1900s, many parts of the water delivery system are nearing the end of its operating ability. The Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) repairs, replaces, and seismically upgrades the system's deteriorating pipelines, tunnels, reservoirs, pump stations, storage tanks, and dams. More than eighty projects throughout the service area–from San Francisco to the Central Valley–will be completed by midyear 2016.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission photographers, Katherine Du Tiel and Robin Scheswohl, have visually documented the construction of these projects—from overall views of construction sites to the construction materials themselves, as well as documenting the labor and achievements of the community of engineers and skilled workers committed to this program. Traditionally, the purpose of construction photography is to provide photo-documentation of a project or program, and the photographs are used as evidence, not as art. But occasionally, the photographer recognizes an opportunity to convey a new perspective of a jobsite through a more abstract representation of the scene.
In these twelve photographs, Du Tiel and Scheswohl provided alternative ways to view what have traditionally been grounded and static images. Instead, they permit the viewer to experience these geometric and lyrical abstract compositions through their unique blending of light, form, scale, and color. Through the photographers' artistic eye, they have transported us into a surreal realm that transcends the expected.
Photography is not permitted.
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