"Workers, Weaving & Waterpower - a Photographer"
by Steve Dunwell-MA
Monday, October 5, 7:30 PM


Every photographer should have a Passion Project. For Steve Dunwell, the subject is textile mills, and the story began in 1972. For the next 6 years, he made an extended photographic documentation of mill workers and their environs in New England. The scope kept expanding: new sites, new material. The photographs became the core of a book ‘The Run of the Mill’ - and Steve has returned to this subject often in recent years, exploring and updating. Now he has created a Limited-Edition portfolio – ‘With These Hands’ - showing B&W portraits of mill workers. These images were shown recently at the Museum of Work and Culture. Steve will share his creative journey and show how this subject turns up everywhere in New England, dispersed in more than a hundred sites - mill villages, factory cities - that were once powerful, now problematic. Drones offer a new point of view, and Steve will talk about how he has used drone POIV for recent projects and for the Mill Story in particular.

STEVE DUNWELL makes photographs of New England – its architecture, landscape, and industry – for publications, for collectors, and for advertising. He has published 17 photo books, and manages Back Bay Press. After some early study with Walker Evans, he jumped into international photojournalism, and then built a regional photo business combining his many interests.

Industrial history has always been a primary theme, starting with an intensive documentation of the world of New England mills in the 1970s, published as ‘The Run of the Mill’ in 1978. Then ‘Vision in Steel in1986’ explored the history of Canadian engineering, and the best seller ‘Boston Freedom Trail in 1995’ looked at the history of that famous venue. Named an ‘Outstanding Contributor’ by Harvard Magazine, his assignment work and stock photography are widely recognized, along with aerial photography including drone work. Steve lives in Boston, near the Public Garden.

His photographs are included in numerous corporate and private collections. Ongoing interests include aerial video, drone operations, textile mills and local history. To see more of his images and view his blog please go to www.stevedunwell.com