Photograph, colour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Tate American Fund
Collection
American Power
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mitch-epstein-13597" aria-label="More by Mitch Epstein" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Mitch Epstein</a>
BP Carson Refinery California
Lent by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of the North American Acquisitions Committee 2011
architecture
capitalism
Carson, E. Sepulveda Blvd. 1801, BP Carson Refinery
chimney
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
consumerism
countries and continents
cultural identity
ecology
emotions, concepts and ideas
energy
features
flag, USA / Stars and Stripes
formal qualities
government and politics
industrial
industrial society
lifestyle and culture
objects
oil refinery
photographic
piping
places
political power
pollution
power
religious and ceremonial
road
social comment
society
tools and machinery
townscapes / man-made features
universal concepts
USA, California
<p><span>BP Carson Refinery, California 2007 </span>is one of five large colour photographs in Tate’s collection from a series entitled <span>American Power</span>. They are all C-prints of the same size, 1143 x 1473 mm, and were printed by the artist in New York in editions of six plus two artist’s proofs. Mitch Epstein is an American photographer who has been working with colour photography since the 1970s. His work is known for its formal complexity and its study of socio-political subjects. <span>American Power </span>is regarded as one of his most important groups of work. It reflects on different ideas of power, and power’s connection to the American landscape, climate and political culture.</p>
paper print photograph colour
21 April 2011 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
21 April 2011 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2011-04-21
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2011-04-21
New Documentary Forms
Collection based display
BP Carson Refinery, California
unconfirmed: 1142 × 1473 mm
Lent by the <a href="/search?gid=999999976" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">American Fund for the Tate Gallery</a>, courtesy of the North American Acquisitions Committee 2011
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>BP Carson Refinery, California 2007 </i>is one of five large colour photographs in Tate’s collection from a series entitled <i>American Power</i>. They are all C-prints of the same size, 1143 x 1473 mm, and were printed by the artist in New York in editions of six plus two artist’s proofs. Mitch Epstein is an American photographer who has been working with colour photography since the 1970s. His work is known for its formal complexity and its study of socio-political subjects. <i>American Power </i>is regarded as one of his most important groups of work. It reflects on different ideas of power, and power’s connection to the American landscape, climate and political culture.</p>
<p>Epstein began work on <i>American Power</i> following a commission by the New York Times in 2003 to photograph the town of Cheshire, Ohio. The American Electric Power Company had decided to pay residents of the town to leave so it could expand its power plant there; however, some residents were refusing to accept the money and leave their homes, so Epstein photographed the power station and these people’s houses. The commission led Epstein to carry out a wider project and he worked on the photographs for <i>American Power</i> between 2003 and 2008. He later wrote:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>I began to make pictures of the production and consumption of energy in the United States. I wanted to photograph the relationship between American society and the American landscape, and energy was the lynchpin ... For the next five years, I travelled the country making photographs at or near energy production sites: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, fuel cell, wind, and solar.</blockquote>
<blockquote>(‘Afterword’ in Epstein 2009.)</blockquote>
<p>In time, Epstein’s series began to include other kinds of images of power – for instance, photographs made in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (for example, see <i>Biloxi, Mississippi 2005</i>, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/epstein-biloxi-mississippi-2005-p20368" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P20368</span></a>), and an image of an electric chair.</p>
<p>As the series grew, and as Epstein travelled the country, he encountered various obstacles to his project. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, local police were often sceptical about the presence of a photographer making images of power stations, and he was arrested several times. ‘With my new project’, he wrote, ‘I am pressed up against the edge of America’s fundamental freedoms. The open society that I took for granted for 33 years is no longer a given.’ (Epstein 2006, p.221).</p>
<p>Although he did not set out as an environmental activist, Epstein’s series indicates a concern with the impact of America’s consumption of energy on the social and geographical landscape. ‘These pictures question the human conquest of nature at any cost’, he wrote, troubled not just by the ‘environmental indifference’ he encountered while making the project, but also by the ‘security excesses’ and ‘corporate avarice’ it revealed (‘Afterword’, in Epstein 2009). He summed up the project saying, ‘With “American Power” I am trying to find and convey truth about how we Americans live, what we want, and what it costs to get it’ (Epstein 2006, p.221). The series is an examination of the energy industry in the first decade of the twenty-first century, of the connections between this industry and American nationalism, and of the consequences of American power for the country’s environment and personal freedoms. The series was published as a book by Steidl in 2009; reviewing the publication for the magazine <i>Artforum</i>, the art historian Michael Fried applauded Epstein’s work for its ‘seamless blend of understated environmental critique, unapologetic mastery of the photographic medium, and formal intelligence’ (Fried 2010, p.43).</p>
<p>
<i>BP Carson Refinery, California 2007</i> shows a huge power station in the centre of the image, framed by a road in the foreground and overhanging trees in each of the top corners. A gigantic American stars and stripes flag is attached to the side of the refinery. The flag acts as a reminder of the links between the energy industry and American identity and nationalism which flourished in the wake of the September 11th attacks. For reasons of ventilation the flag is punctured at regular intervals, paradoxically suggesting an unwitting image of American vulnerability. The road in the foreground, with its shrubbery that seems to cling to life in the face of the industrial environment, is a reminder of the automobile industry which relies on the refinery’s product – petroleum.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mitch Epstein, <i>Work</i> 1973–2006, Göttingen 2006.<br/>Mitch Epstein, <i>American Power</i>, Göttingen 2009.<br/>Michael Fried, ‘Living in America: Michael Fried on Mitch Epstein’s “American Power”’, <i>Artforum</i>,<i> </i>January 2010, p.43.</p>
<p>Mark Godfrey<br/>September 2010   </p>
</div>

Summary
2012-08-08T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
architecture capitalism Carson, E. Sepulveda Blvd. 1801, BP Carson Refinery chimney cities, towns, villages (non-UK) consumerism countries and continents cultural identity ecology emotions, concepts and ideas energy features flag, USA / Stars and Stripes formal qualities government and politics industrial industrial society lifestyle and culture objects oil refinery photographic piping places political power pollution power religious and ceremonial road social comment society tools and machinery townscapes / man-made features universal concepts USA, California