20/1/2015
Will Steacy
Espace Quai1, Vevey
Deadline. The artist presents his series about the editorial and printing premises of the Philadelphia Inquirer at the height of financial difficulties: the loss of advertisers; mass redundancies; threat of bankruptcy.
Over the course of five years, Will Steacy photographed the editorial and printing premises of the Philadelphia Inquirer at the height of financial difficulties: the loss of advertisers; mass redundancies; threat of bankruptcy… Through this series, he portrays a true picture of the entire North American and global press industry and questions data processing in the internet age. ‘Since 2000, the press has got rid of 30 % of its work force: it is the fastest industrial decline in the history of America.
At a time when we are witnessing an unprecedented social transition, when we are moving to an economy of information technology in which innovations have made a certain number of skills obsolete and improved productivity while reducing payrolls, the question is: what was the human cost of these gains? When the press loses reporters, editors and entire columns, we lose news coverage, linked to our towns and our societies, and, ultimately, we ourselves become lost. (…) A newspaper is much more than a business, it is a common asset.’
Writer and photographer Will Steacy, born in 1980, lives and works in New York. Stemming from five generations of journalists, he worked as a trade unionist before becoming a photographer. Firmly committed to the community, he becomes involved long-term in the subjects that he covers. Recognised by critics notably for Down These Mean Streets – a book published in 2012 – his images are regularly published in magazines and papers like Wired, The Guardian and The New Yorker. Exhibited as part of the Discovery Prize at the Rencontres d’Arles 2014, the Deadline series was also published by b.frank books (Zurich).
In 2013, participated in the Vevey International Photography Award organised by the Festival Images.
Image: © Will Steacy
Press Contact:
Charlotte Terrapon, presse@images.ch
Opening: 21 Jan 2015, 18:30
Espace Quai1
Vevey Svizzera Place de la Gare 3