The work of Bernd and Hilla Becher is characterized by a minimalistic presentation with an emphasis on form and architecture. In the late 1970s and early 1980s they made several journeys to the Rust Belt and documented the now obsolete industries of the area. From their time there, they present photographs of Blast Furnaces, the large structures responsible for the first stage in steel production, smelting iron ore so it can be further processed.

Due to the challenges in accurately presenting the complex, tangling forms of pipes within Blast Furnaces, they became one of the artists’ favorite structures to shoot, Hilla even nicknaming them ‘octopus’ given the extended pipes’ resemblance to tentacles.

In the early 1970s, Stephen Shore and Hilla Becher developed an artistic friendship, that was mutually influential. Whilst interested in this same pivotal point in history, Shore tells the story with a focus on the strain put on the people and towns of the Rust Belt in a series of photographs originally commissioned by Fortune Magazine in 1977 for the article ‘Hard Times Come to Steeltown’.

The streets in these color photographs appear unnervingly depopulated and deserted. By precisely controlling the coloration in his pictures, Shore combines the style of documentary photography with a personal, subjective viewpoint.

The dead-pan expressions of the depicted business-owners and steelworkers speaks to the sense of dispossession experienced by those left behind. Shore’s photographs allude to the fact that it was not only a material crisis people faced, but a spiritual one lasting for generations.

Working more recently, LaToya Ruby Frazier examines the political, social, and economic ramifications of the ongoing crises within the Rust Belt. Her practice is rooted in her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, once a thriving suburb of Pittsburgh, which also becomes her subject. Her photographic project, The Notion of Family (2001–2014), depicts three generations – herself, her mother, and her grandmother – against a backdrop of an all-pervading sickness, entwining economic racism and post-industrial decay.

By reflecting upon her own circumstances, Frazier instils the work with a sense of poignancy. To her, the camera is a means for social change, utilising and expanding upon the traditions of black-and-white documentary photography.