Charles Agel b. 1957

Charles Agel depicts the environmental consequences of excessive consumerism and production which have been supported by the culture without concern for the environment. In photographing the decayed ruins of industrial sites, Agel reminds the viewer that from this irresponsibility future generations are left with environmental damage. In the 19^th century, the Industrial Revolution was believed to be the means by which a utopian world would be created; ironically, unforeseen side effects have destroyed the land and many of the factories themselves sit in decay.

For this series, Charles Agel matched his photographs of industrial ruins in Western New York with historic texts by a Western European explorer interpreting archeological finds in the Americas from his outsider perspective. The following excerpt accompanies this specific image.

In regard to the age of this desolate city I shall not at present offer any conjecture. Some idea might perhaps be formed from the accumulations of earth and the gigantic trees growing on the top of the ruined structures, but it would be uncertain and unsatisfactory. Nor shall I at this moment offer any conjecture in regard to the people who built it, or to the time when or the means by which it was depopulated, and became a desolation and ruin; whether it fell by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. The trees which shroud it may have sprung from the blood of its slaughtered inhabitants; they may have perished howling with hunger; or pestilence, like the cholera, may have piled its streets with dead, and driven forever the feeble remnants from their homes; of which dire calamities to other cities we have authentic accounts, in eras both prior and subsequent to the discovery of the country by the Spaniards. One thing I believe, that its history is graven on its monuments. No Champollion has yet brought to them the energies of his inquiring mind. Who shall read them?