NOISEA QUARTERLY EXPLORATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOCIETY

FALL 2014

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“Photojournalism”

— Editor’s Note —

Editorial BoardCK Vijayakumar Tianchi ChenSara LewkowiczBrooke Herbert HayesTerry Eiler

Yi-Ke Peng Yi HuangSabrina Schaeffer

Welcome to the first issue of Noise magazine. The name of the magazine is derived from the concept that information is received in the form of noise. However we filter what we need and organize it in our minds in the form of narratives. The concept of narrative is considered very important in the field of photojournalism. But it seems that the noise required to create a narrative has been relegated to the back seat. The consequence of this phenomena is the loss of complexity, character and mood of a given subject. The characters have progressively been thinned out to fit the form of a narrative that can further fit into a distributable form. Though the word photojournalism appears in quotes it is not the intention to be cynical, ironic or sarcastic. It is intended to question the boundaries of photojournalism. Our mission is to explore social, economic and political situations, and express our understanding through the evolving language of photography. It is an attempt to take photojournalism as the starting point in terms of content and then rebel against its stylistic conformity, in order preserve the individuality of the photographer, while at the same time commenting on the broad state of society. There is a separation between art and journalism, since each has a different goal. This magazine is dedicated to photography that forms a synthesis between journalistic investigation and artistic interpretation to reveal hidden structures of reality while at the same time being committed and oriented towards social awareness. We accept that our understanding of a situation is only a perspective of reality, and affected by each

photographer’s own voice, therefore his/her vision will be given equal importance. We believe that photography cannot explain this world or provide solutions. However we do recognize its ability to freeze a moment in time and offer an insight into a situation that no other medium can express. The language of photography has been continuously and freely changing in unpredictable ways. Our goal is to encourage photographers to try and create a new photographic vocabulary that can transcend the limitation of the written word. The intent of this magazine is to question the reigning orthodoxy of thought with respect to society and photography. The purpose would be to try to abandon the world of pseudo-certainty created by the media driven by numbers. It is a sincere attempt to contribute to, and be accepted in the world of journalism and photography. This particular issue will feature a student photographer - CK Vijayakumar from the Photojournalism program in Ohio University. He is a 31 year old graduate student from the south of India. This project is a personal exploration of Youngstown, Ohio, to understand the relationship between a landscape and the identity of its people. Combining both natural origins and then the economic and cultural overlay of human presence created over a long period of time - landscape comes to represent local identity. There are shared memories and experiences that form the basis of their identity. Urban situations change too rapidly for people to evolve and accept the new realities, due to the burden of memory reinforced by the landscape. This project is a study of the interaction between such a landscape, memory and identity.

Searching for a New Expression

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Youngstown, OhioSweet Jenny doesn’t live here anymore

Bruce Springsteen wrote the song Youngstown in 1995, about 20 years after the collapse of the steel industry. The “Sweet Jenny” he sings to was not a long lost lover, but the largest blast furnace in the city – The Jeannette blast furnace. Blast furnaces ran 24 hours a day in Steel mills that lined the Mahoning River for 25 uninterrupted miles. He talks about what happens to cities when The Industry leaves. When the steel mills closed down and almost two–thirds of the people left, all the other structures like schools, churches, roads, grocery stores, etc., that support a community also came crashing down.

The furnaces spewed thick gray smoke that blocked out the sky. Steel workers completed their grueling shifts and went down to the bars that surrounded the mills to tune out of their brutal work environ-ments. Rumbling freight trains plied ceaselessly, coming in with iron ore, coal, and limestone and then heading out with steel. The city was covered in soot and smelled of sulphur. The river was all but dead as it drained out the hot polluted water. But there was food on the table. There was blue–collar pride. There was money in the pockets thanks to steel. Youngstown was all steel, and nothing but steel.

The steel mills were all using pre–World War I technology. The new-est blast furnace was installed 1921. As transportation costs went up steel–making went to ports like Gary, Cleveland and Chicago. Foreign competition started hurting Youngstown steel due to lower overhead costs or higher quality steel. Unlike in Allentown, PA, other industries were not allowed to establish themselves in Youngstown because the steel industry was quite possessive of its labor pool. Finally on Monday, September 19, 1977, it was announced that the Youngstown Sheet and Tube company in Campbell would be closed down by the end of the week, which instantly put 5000 employees out of work. It was known as Black Monday. It started a ripple effect. It came as a shock to most since they did not see the signs of decay setting in like cancer, a couple of decades earlier. The city simply collapsed since it had no other sub-stantial industry. A couple of medium sized steel mills and a handful of ancillary steel factories such as foundries, scrap yards, and tube mills still operate, catering to smaller markets with more specific needs, where the economy of scale is not a problem.

African–American people started moving into Youngstown in the late 19th century, to take up low level jobs. The jobs remained segregated until the late 60s and early 70s. However, as black workers started get-ting into better positions the steel industry collapsed. Many of the white workers moved out of Youngstown into other big cities while others moved into the suburbs of Youngstown where jobs in other small

businesses could be found. The black community could not do the same and this resulted in the burgeoning ghetto in the South–side of Youngstown. Crime and drugs skyrocketed in the 80s and 90s and still continue to haunt this area. Sports and religion are two things that help keep the kids off the street. African–Americans form the largest demographic group at 43 percent, followed closely by the White population at 40 percent.

The hard and gritty yet friendly blue–collar character of this city has produced a surprisingly large number of athletes for its size. Sport is considered one of the silver linings of Youngstown that keeps the hopes of the city alive. Kelly Pavlik, Ray Mancini, Jim Tressel, Deacon McGuire, and Bob Dove are a few of the great athletes from Youngstown. The friendly yet highly competitive fighting spirit is a well known quality of the people of Youngstown, especially in the sphere of sports.

As the population dropped from a whopping 170,000 in the 1930s to the current 65,000 the number of abandoned buildings and open lots blighted the city especially when crime moved into such buildings. The city tore down many buildings but that’s still what one mostly notices in this city. Plants have slowly started reclaiming the spaces that have long been vacated by humans. As people mourn the loss of a good life and a livelihood, nature slowly and apathetically takes back what was alway its own. The striking natural beauty of this tragic landscape is almost comforting and forces one to look at the situation from a very different perspective.

However, all is not lost in Youngstown. The controversial prac-tice of fracking to extract fossil fuels has entered the Mahoning Valley despite the opposition from environmental activists, and the earthquakes that have been associated with it. General Motors is still going strong with three shifts a day in the Lordstown Assembly. Youngstown State University, the largest employer in the city, has had a steady increase in enrollment.The business incubator is providing substantial support to small

businesses and young entrepreneurs. The incubator was recently ranked the top business incubator in the world and awarded another $2billion for expansion. Downtown Youngstown, which was a symbol of the blight, is also picking up in terms of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and other small businesses. The people of Youngstown have faith and hope that Youngstown will rise again, maybe not to its former glory but just enough to erase the memories of a prosper-ous past and the precipitous fall.

From the Monongahela valley To the Mesabi iron range

To the coal mines of Appalachia The story’s always the same

Seven hundred tons of metal a day Now sir you tell me the world’s changed

Once I made you rich enough Rich enough to forget my name

- Bruce Springsteen

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1803 First Blast Furnace——

1867 Incorporated as a city——

1900 Creation of Youngstown Sheet and Tube

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1918 Jeanette Blast Furnace installed——

1930 Population – 170,000——

1937 Little Steel Strike——

1966 GM Builds Lordstown Plant——

1977 Sept.19, Black Monday: The closing of Youngstown Sheet and Tube

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1980 US Steel, Ohio Works shuts down——

1997 Jeanette Blast Furnace demolished——

2012 Population – 65,000——

McDonald Steel Corporation

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Previous pageWest Front Street, Downtown

Grocery Store, Warren

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Abandoned Dry Cleaners, South Avenue

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McDonald Steel Corporation

Previous pageAuto Mechanic Store, Lincoln Avenue

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Niles Iron and Metal Company

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New Bethel Baptist Church, Hillman Street

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New Bethel Baptist Church, Hillman Street

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Cardinal Mooney High School

Previous pageJack Loew’s South-side Boxing Gym

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Cardinal Mooney High School Vs. Ursuline High School at Youngstown State University

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Johnny Hura

Previous pageBilly Moritz, under the Spring Commons Bridge

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William Sullivan

Jennifer Chester

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East. Laclede Avenue

Previous pageJohnny Hura, Under the Spring Commons Bridge, Downtown

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Market Street

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FALL 2014