Joseph E.B. Elliott
American photographer, born 1949
Waiting for a Heat of Steel
1992
Gelatin silver print
41 x 52 inches (104.14 x 132.08 centimeters)
Purchase: The Reverend and Mrs. Van S. Merle-Smith, Jr. Endowment Fund, 2000.
2000.016.000

Joseph Elliott is known for large-scale photographs of industrial spaces in which he records both the vastness of old facilities and the human presence within them. In 1992, when he made this photograph, the workforce at Bethlehem Steel's plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania had been drastically cut, and soon the facility would be closed. Elliott's exposure captured the slight movements of two workmen during a lull in the steel making process.