Akron

Artist

Andre Kertész (Hungarian, 1894 – 1985)

Date

Original photograph 1947; this print 1972

Medium

Photogravure

Dimensions

Mat : 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.64 cm)
Sheet/image : 8 7/16 x 6 5/8 in. (21.43 x 16.83 cm)

Credit Line

Hope College Collection

Object Number

2020.71

Label

Throughout the 19^th and most of the 20^th centuries, many European and American industrial factories used nearby rivers, lakes and oceans as convenient dumping grounds for the unwanted byproducts of their manufacturing operations. These byproducts often contained long-lasting toxic chemicals that polluted the water and contaminated the sediments at the bottom of the waterways. This photogravure print of a photograph taken in 1947 by the Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész depicts a factory in Akron, Ohio. In the middle decades of the 20^th century, Akron was known as “The Rubber Capital of the World” for its extensive tire manufacturing industry. Today few tires are made in Akron but water and soil pollution caused by that industry remain an ongoing problem.