CVNRA #818, from the Federal Lands series

More Information

Although Ketchum’s series depicting the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area stands as an important project on its own, it can also be viewed as a counterpoint to an earlier series by the photographer Lee Friedlander. With support from the Akron Art Museum and Centran Bank of Akron (now Key Bank), Friedlander worked in 1979 and 1980 to document the decline of the industries of the Great Lakes region. The area was suffering a serious economic depression as a result of the nationwide outsourcing and elimination of manufacturing jobs. Friedlander focused on the mechanical repetitiveness of factory workers’ daily lives and the ugliness of the industrial environment. While his black and white photographs show urban blight, Ketchum’s color images emphasize the beauty and natural resources of the region.