Abby Inpanbutr
May 2014 | Gallery4Culture
Persistent Work, Images of History and Industry on Salmon Bay and Lake Union
May 1 – 29, 2014
Opening: First Thursday, May 1, 2014 from 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Persistent Work, Images of History and Industry on Salmon Bay and Lake Union, by Seattle-based architectural photographer Abby Inpanbutr, celebrates an authentic piece of Pacific Northwest history. Since 2011, Ms. Inpanbutr has been recording the small maritime businesses that have historically populated Seattle’s working waterfront.
Persistent Work is an ongoing documentation of Seattle’s vanishing marine industrial heritage, focusing on those situated on Lake Union and Salmon Bay. In the first phase of the project (2011/12), three local waterfront businesses were selected by Inpanbutr for their long-term presence and historic significance. These were Pacific Fishermen Shipyard and George Broom’s Sons, both on Salmon Bay in Ballard; and Jensen’s Motorboat Company, located on Portage Bay. Abby Inpanbutr photographed the buildings and sites to strict archival standards in black and white with a 4×5 camera with large-format film.
Company histories were collected by staff from The Center for Wooden Boats through interviews and review of their photographic archives. Development has accelerated the pace of change and since 2012, sail makers George Broom’s Sons lost their historic building to demolition.
In February 2012, the early phase of the Persistent Work photographs was exhibited alongside key pieces of historic memorabilia at The Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle. This exhibition combines some of these materials alongside the project’s second phase (2013/14) which documents these additional maritime work sites: Bakketun & Thomas Boat Company, Salmon Bay; Fishing Vessel Owners’ Marine Ways, Salmon Bay; and Ballard Oil, Salmon Bay.
About the Artist
Abby Inpanbutr is a photographer and graphic designer who collaborates with The Center for Wooden Boats to document and present local maritime history. Her preferred medium is large-format film photography; the slow process is well suited for collecting stories and building relationships. Some of this work has been submitted to the Library of Congress through the Historic American Engineering Record and Historic American Building Surveys. Abby was introduced to large format photography while studying architecture at the University of Washington. Experience in the field of architecture and historic preservation continues to influence her work. In addition to working with The Center for Wooden Boats and on her own projects, she is currently employed as an artist at Art & Soul Studios in Ballard.