Joseph E.B. Elliott

Photographer, 1981-present

Professor of Art: Muhlenberg College, Allentown PA, 1983-2019

Adjunct Lecturer: Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, 2006-present

B.S. University of Minnesota
M.F.A. Pratt Institute

STATEMENT

My work resides at the nexus of documentation and art. Documentation implies a process in which information is objectively recorded, analyzed, cataloged and communicated. Art implies sentiment, interpretation and subjective representation. In my experience, art and documentation are not mutually exclusive, lying instead along a continuum. I attempt to make work that contains elements of both. My influences include the cool approaches of Walker Evans, Bernd and Hill Becher, and Charles Sheeler, as well as the formal virtuosity of G. B. Piranesi and the luscious intensity of W. Eugene Smith.

I apply my practice to the recording and representation of the built environment, particularly historic urban and industrial subjects. I am attracted by the material qualities of wood, metal, stone, and brick, and the formal qualities of structure and space, both utilitarian and aspirational. I want to reveal the function, beauty and wonder of what people have created.

I choose to work with photographic processes because they capture visual information so quickly and so thoroughly. While I prefer a mechanical image-making device I am constantly engaged in the struggle to make images that are more than simple records. I want my images to stand apart from the physical objects they derive from.

PERSONAL AND COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

The Steel

Palazzos of Power

Finding the Hidden City

In Exchange for Gold

Landscapes of Extraction

Inspired Sound: Philadelphia’s Pipe Organ Heritage

PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS

2019    Niesenbaum, Richard A. and Elliott Joseph E. B., In Exchange for Gold: The Legacy and Sustainability of Gold Mining in Las Juntas de Abangares, Costa Rica, Common Ground Research Networks, Champaign IL

2017    Elliott Joseph E. B., Popkin, Nathaniel, and Woodall, Peter, Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA

2016    Wunsch, Aaron and Elliott, Joseph E. B., Palazzos of Power: Central Stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, NY

2013    Elliott, Joseph E. B., The Steel, Photographs of the Bethlehem Steel Plant, 1989-1996, Columbia Chicago College Press, Chicago, IL     

PUBLICATIONS: SELECTED PERIODICALS AND CATALOGS

2018    Elliott, Joseph E. B., “Documenting the Legacy of Slate Extraction in Pennsylvania”, Change Over Time, Vol.7, No. 1, 2018, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA      

2011    Elliott, Joseph E. B., "Photography in Heritage Research: In Search of Digital Standards for Image Capture, Image Processing, and Image Delivery" Change Over Time, Vol.1, No. 2, 2011, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA     

2010    “Temples for the People: Largess for Learning at Philadelphia’s Carnegie Libraries,” edited by David Andrews, photographs by Joseph Elliott Common Ground, National Park Service, Washington DC, Spring 2010

2003    ”Fleeting Streets: The Plight and Promise of North Philadelphia”, photographs by Joseph Elliott, Common Ground, National Park Service, Washington, DC, Fall 2003

2002    Silent Witness, Quaker Meeting Houses of the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia, PA (exhibition catalog)

2002    “Meltdown”, text by Richard Martin, photographs by Joseph Elliott,  WIRED, San Francisco, CA Feb.2002

2001    Architecture, Engineering, and Industry: American Genius 1759-1950, by Louis Bergeron, Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY, and Editions Hoebeke, Paris

2001    “Images du Patrimoine Industriel des Etats-Unis”,  LA Revue, No. 19, Musee des Arts et Metiers, Paris, France (exhibition catalog)

1997 “Saving American Steel”, text by Doug Stuart, photographs by Joseph Elliott, Smithsonian, Washington, DC, August, 1997                                                                                              

1994    "Encountering the Machine", Technology Review, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA, February, 1994

1992    Light in Bethlehem Lehigh University Galleries, Bethlehem, PA (exhibition catalog)

1991   "Memoirs of Steel", Barbara Flannigan  Metropolis, New York, NY, Nov. 1991

1987   Stated as Fact New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ (exhibition catalog)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITS

2021. “Inspired Sound: Philadelphia’s Pipe Organ Heritage”. Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia. PA

2018    “Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City”, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

2017    “Palazzos of Power”, Kriotz Gallery, Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2013    "Lost Bricks: Western Clay Manufacturing Co.", Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT

2010    “Joseph E.B. Elliott: Bethlehem Steel Portfolio 1989-1996, Lehigh University Gallery, Bethlehem, PA      

2008   “Palazzos of Power”, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 

1999    "End of an Era", Zoellner Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA           

1996    "State of Steel", with Martin Desht, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading PA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITS

2015    “100+: A Photograph For Every Year of Mia”, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

2004    “Traveling the Lincoln Highway”, Westmorland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA       

2002    “Silent Witness, Quaker Meeting houses of the Delaware Valley”,

Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

1998     "Archeologia Industriale Degli Stati Uniti"

Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology, Milan, Italy

1997     "Images du Patrimoine Industriel des Etats-Unis", Musee des Arts et Metiers, Paris, FR    

1990    New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1990    "Stated as Fact", New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

SELECTED ARCHIVAL RECORDING PROJECTS/CLIENTS

World War I American Cemeteries and Monuments in Europe, American Battle Monuments Commission/ASLA Ellis Island Hospital Complex and Landscape, NPS Carnegie Libraries of Philadelphia (23 branch libraries), NPS The Woodlands, Philadelphia, PA, NPS John Bartram’s House, Philadelphia, PA, NPS St. Nicholas Central Breaker, Schuylkill County, PA, NPS Whitesbog, New Jersey, NPS The Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania, NPS Mills and company town of Roebling, NJ, NPS Railroad Bridges of Pennsylvania, NPS Highway Bridges of Pennsylvania, NPS/ PADOT Bridges of Texas, NPS/TXDOT Bridges of Iowa, NPS/IADOT Bald Mountain Gold Mine, Deadwood, SD, NPS Cast and Wrought Iron Bridges of Ohio, PA and NJ, NPS Huber Breaker, Ashley, PA, NPS Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI, NPS Bethforge Division of Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem, PA, NPS/D and L Corridor Particle Accelerator, Argonne IL, Argonne National Laboratory Ford Assembly Plant, Pittsburgh, PA, ZGF Architects Goethals Bridge, Elizabeth, NJ, Richard Grubb and Associates/Port Authority of NY and NJ

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, COMMISSIONS

2019    Appointed Resident Fellow for Fall 2020, Institute of American Universities, Aix-en-Provence, France

2002   Grant from The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, IL for the project: “Palazzos of Power”   

1991    Grant from Delaware and Lehigh Canal National Heritage Corridor Commission 

1982    New York State Creative Artists Program Services Grant for photography.

COLLECTIONS

Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA Johnson and Johnson Inc., New Brunswick, NJ Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT Library of Congress, HABS/HAER Collection, Washington, DC  Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN New York Transit Museum, New York, NY Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA