Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills [Paperback]

Andrew Borowiec (Author, Photographer), Rod =Slemmons (Photographer), Les Roberts (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1930066805 | ISBN-13: 978-1930066809 | Publication Date: October 1, 2008

The Flats, a district near downtown Cleveland, was once was the vibrant heart of Midwestern industry and is now in the throes of change: Some of its warehouses and factories have been transformed into nightclubs and restaurants, while homes in adjacent neighborhoods have been replaced by mini-mansions.  In Cleveland, photographer Andrew Borowiec documents the Flats today and evokes the way of life they once embodied.
Given the rare opportunity to access one of Cleveland’s vast steel mills before it was modernized or destroyed, Borowiec employed his camera to explore the Flats and its monuments of American industry. His striking black and white images reveal the broken power and vulnerability of the once-mighty mill as well as its relation to the surrounding city and its neighborhoods. The commercial buildings, factories, warehouses, and iron bridges that sustained Cleveland’s industrial pulse convey a quiet dignity in these compelling photographs, as do the modest frame houses that sheltered those who labored for decades in the Flats.

As Clevelanders struggle to redefine themselves as citizens of a twenty-first-century corporate metropolis, the Flats stand as a haunting testament to a time when men worked with their hands and steel was indeed the backbone of our nation.  Borowiec’s compassionate but unflinchingly honest gaze challenges us to look both at and beyond the images of Cleveland and to meditate on our common history of loss and rebirth.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Andrew Borowiec's book is spectacular. As much as I liked his first two books, Along the Ohio and Industrial Perspective: Photographs of the Gulf Coast, Cleveland is my favorite." - Bob Thall, Columbia College Chicago "When I first looked at these photographs, they touched a real and prideful and sometimes hurtful nerve inside me; they reminded me of the same places I've written about, places that in a very real way affected the fictional characters I brought to life.... This is an amazing collection picturing the place I love." - Les Roberts, from the Introduction"

About the Author

Andrew Borowiec is professor of art at the University of Akron. He is also the author of Along the Ohio and Industrial Perspective. He has received numerous grants, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his photographs are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Center for American Places (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930066805
• ISBN-13: 978-1930066809
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars where I worked - the flats and the mill, March 19, 2009

By 

F.D. Wolfe (Chardon, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills (Paperback)

I enjoyed the pictures of places I had driven past or worked at for thirty plus years - much of the landscape changed while I worked there but more has changed since. Many of the places are weed patches now that used to be alive with men, machines, and traffic going to and from as well as part of the mills. I could only wish there were more pictures from when the place was really alive.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have book, October 20, 2010

By 

Alexis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills (Paperback)

This book is important for lovers of industrial architecture of any rust belt city, and especially we Cleveland expatriates who miss our own days of photographing the ever-fascinating Flats area. Cleveland, the Hill etc beautifully conveys the simple majesty of working landscapes. The sun and shadow composition of the photos is splendid, so evocative of both times gone by, but in some photos, the present as well. Borowiec definitely has an artist's eye and feel for his material. The Flats are unique to Cleveland, and Borowiec captures the spirit and identity perfectly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tough Photographs of a Tough City, July 5, 2009

By 

Gregg Eldred (Avon Lake, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills (Paperback)

As author Les Roberts states in the Introduction to this book, "Cleveland is a tough town." The weather, politics, and economy requires that this city be tough. However, if you say you live in Cleveland, you may not actually live IN Cleveland. "Clevelanders" live in Shaker Heights, Bay Village, Brecksville, and many other cities that surround Cleveland. Thankfully, I have worked and played in Cleveland and am familiar with many of the neighborhoods depicted in Andrew Borowiec's book, Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills, but I have not seen them until now.

Contents:
Introduction: Living in Cleveland by Les Roberts
The Plates
Afterword: What's Left? by Rod Slemmons
List of Plates
Acknowledgements
About the Author and the Essayists

Commissioned by the George Gund Foundation, Andrew Borowiec took photographs of Cleveland for its 2002 Annual Report. However, once he was finished, the George Gund Foundation provided the support for their publication in an imprint of the Center for American Places. What you see is a Cleveland that many know but never see. The pictures, all in black and white and with only a couple of people, are stark, gritty, industrial, touching, and beautiful. Black and white is the perfect medium for Cleveland. Some photographs, taken in winter, seem colder; like a wind off of Lake Erie. Others, in the summer, seem hotter, more humid. Much like some of our summer days. In short, this is how Cleveland should look. The photographs that really make an impact are of people's back yards, overlooking the industrial Flats. Their choices of furniture do not seem out of place; car seats, mismatched chairs, makeshift tables. Gritty furniture for a tough people. Two photos require a careful reexamination - the disappearance of a small house for an upscale townhouse. All that remains of the house is its fence. It is strange that the fence seems to belong, but with a much different meaning.

Andrew's choices of Les Roberts and Rod Slemmons for the essays was a masterstroke. These two individuals add more depth to the wonderful photographs and provide excellent insight into Cleveland. While probably not popular with the Cleveland Travel and Convention Bureau, this is a book that all Clevelanders should read. For those that wonder about our fair city, it will reveal our industrial legacy. Slemmons;' essay is a perfect ending to this wonderful book, as he recalls the people that have populated this town. And in the end, you will realize that Les Roberts was correct, this is a tough city and Borowiec has captured it.