Smog, where? img449, with story

I took this image in a midwestern American city, in the 1970s.  In those days when there was an air inversion and the exhausts hung around the skylines, your visibility was measured in blocks, not miles.  Going to the top of one of Cincinnati, Ohio's seven hills I pointed my lens into town.  What was close still had full contrast and tone, but as you moved further from my vantage spot, the vagueness of the smog left your details in a fog.

Taken with a 150mm Zeiss Sonnar on a Hasselblad 500C using Kodak Tri-X panchromatic black and white film.  The tobacco colored wash adds to the mood of the haze, as I remembered it.  While nearly all of America has left these days behind, you know there are many locations in the world where industrial air pollution still exists.   I will be posting another image or two of this atmospheric condition in the near future.  If you wish to view it either watch me or check my gallery.




eugene spiegel