When Emery Roth began photographing along the old railroad tracks of the Naugatuck Valley, he never expected they would lead him through a time warp to a mill where he would find giant hydraulics still hissing, steel clanking, hot glowing metal still flying through the air – where the steam still rises from old pickling vats, and men still charge the foundry furnaces in buildings where the soot has caked for more than a hundred years. Some of the photographs from Emery Roth’s book Brass Valley: Made in America, which were taken in Waterbury and Ansonia, will be on exhibition in the art gallery of the Silas Bronson Library during June and July.
On Wednesday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. Roth will give a power point presentation in the library auditorium of additional images from his book, accompanied by poetry and prose selections from it. He will also discuss his discoveries along the tracks and in old industrial sites throughout the valley. Attendees may order a special limited edition of the exhibition book.
Roth studied both design and literature at Carnegie-Mellon University earning a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters in English degrees. Since he retired after teaching thirty years, he spends much of his time hiking the fields and pastures of the Berkshire Hills in search of images that tell the many moods of the land. When he’s not hiking in the hills, he may be hiking the streets of New York City, discovering old wharves along the Atlantic coast or railroad tracks through the Naugatuck Valley. He hopes the best of his images speak with the immediacy of music.
Both the program and evening parking are free.