Brad Temkin – Rooftop – PhotoBook Journal

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Photographer: Brad Temkin (born & resides Chicago, IL)

Essays: John Rohrbach, Steven Peck, Roger Schickedantz

Text: English

Hardcover with glued boards and accompanying perfect-bond booklet (essay and list of plates), Lucite slipcase, sewn binding, four-color lithography, printed in Verona, Italy

Photobook designer: David Chickey and David Skolkin

Notes:

The rooftops of industrial buildings could well be one of the last frontiers for ecological exploration, usually a place that is a maintenance crew’s worst nightmare as a source for water leaks. This no-man’s landscape has more recently been envisioned as a potential location for huge panels for solar energy with an eye towards reducing electrical cost in conjunction with reducing the carbon footprint. Likewise, a relatively new concept for industry is the green roof, which Temkin has investigated in his book Rooftop. The concept is not entirely new as the top of many apartment complexes have for generations’ harbored gardens and other green sanctuaries.

Temkin has found these industrial oasis in the midst of heavy commerce and high rise commercial complexes, an otherwise sea of concrete, steel and glass. What is not apparent is that these green places are usually meant for popular use or even by those who inhabit the commercial space just below these beautiful vistas. Temkin has framed many of his images in a manner that makes the location ambiguous, even to the point of recognizing that the location is on top of commercial building. One poignant exception is the photograph that captures both the natural habitat on the roof and the stark contrast of the business personnel boxed inside the building below, attentive to their computer monitors and headsets. Nevertheless, Tempkin’s clearly seen photographs offers hope as to our industrial future.

Additional Footnote: I was part of the 2016 PhotoBook Competition jury during which we selected Tempkins’ photobook Rooftop as one of the three Best in Show.

Cheers

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