BLOG CROXFORD: CREEP OF THE WEEK 7: SUBWAY REEF

Friday, June 1, 2012

CREEP OF THE WEEK 7: SUBWAY REEF

Hey y'all......

So this week's creepy place is the Reef that is being built in the Atlantic - out of decommissioned NYC Subway cars!

HUNDREDS OF THEM! The whole ideas that the stripped and decontaminated subway cars off on barges to be dropped into the Ocean in order to build refuge for many species of fish and crustaceans which would colonize the structures.

First here is Stephen Mallon’s Next Stop Atlantic - an AH-MAH-ZING series of photographs, which capture the retirement of the cars to the deep deep blue. Here is how BEAUTIFUL DECAY describes his photos:

"Mallon traces the progress of the train cars on their way towards their last voyage, majestic waves approach the viewer in these large scale photographs as they too are transported out to sea to behold the lifting and transfer of these massive machines. One photograph hauntingly depicts elements of nature creeping into their barren hulls, drifts of snow lines the walkways, a glimpse of sunshine streams through their removed doors as they wait in stacks to be carted off to sink to the dark depths of the ocean floor.

Mallon’s photographs elicit both the sadness and the beauty of cascading water overtaking these iconic figures of New York transit as they sink beneath the surface of the water; surges and sprays are caught in time. Stephen Mallon dedicated the last three years to following this endeavor, chronicling the last phase of NYC Transit’s involvement in this program. The photographs that are presented in this exhibition capture the grandiosity of this effort; the weight of these 18-ton train cars can be felt as they are ferried off and plunged into the water."

So here is the photos...but you can see more HERE:

(Remember you can enlarge the photos by clicking them)