JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post in the series The History of Blank, Empty and Missing Things
At the beginning of it all, the Titanic started out as a space in a dry dock, a line of horse carts, and a big puddle; Disneyland a flat piece of not-desirable land in California; the Sydney Opera House a nice spit of land jutting into the harbor, and the Pentagon a very large swath of semi-swampy land near a river. It is interesting to look at these images and image the massive things that would soon fill the "empty" space.
Disneyland
Empire State Building.
World Trade Center
Woolworth Building (source: NYPL flickr)



This type of site shots always reminds me of new work by Michael Weseley. He has a new take on architectural site photography: point the camera at a construction site and open the shutter for 3 years.
http://itchyi.squarespace.com/thelatest/2010/7/20/the-longest-photographic-exposures-in-history.html
It seems to get at the essentials of the object being constructed, while all the activity of the construction itself is invisible.
Posted by: Charles | 06 January 2012 at 11:40 PM