Cloud, Sunrise on a Sunny Fall Day

Cloud was found on a Valparaiso, Indiana street without trees nearby. The resulting photograph thus reflects the full sunrise on this fall day.

Review written by Bill Teeple, Curator of ICON Gallery in Fairfield, IA for the IOWA SOURCE (©  2019 reprinted with permission):

This photograph (and others in this collection) “reveals the rich variety of colors and textures that appear in cast iron when photographed during the “golden hour” — in this case sunrise on an sunny fall day.

“The artworks are macro photographs of cast iron street gratings cast with a bas-relief sculpture of a trout and framed by the words “dump no waste” and “drains to waterways.” The gratings are a plea for the public to care for the environment.

“Cast iron exposed to the open air oxidizes in different ways, creating tens of thousands of mirror-like surfaces that catch incoming light at different angles and depths. The resulting images bring the viewer in close proximity to the delicacy of early morning and late afternoon light during various weather conditions and seasons.During this golden hour light, richer and brighter colors are revealed.

“Duncan and Carla Brown’s work is created using archival pigments, and displays the same ability as the original cast iron to reflect and mirror light at different times of day. Duncan Brown  and Carla Brown  discovered the gratings in 2018. Duncan has taken thousands of photos of gratings in the Upper Midwest, and Carla has been essential in editing the images.”