Jeff Brouws
Coaling Tower #20, 2013
Archival pigment print
In his new book, Brouws documents the concrete giants that once fueled America’s railroads and still haunt the landscape
Excerpt of Chronogram Magazine article by Brian K. Mahoney
For more than three decades, Jeff Brouws has photographed the American landscape at moments of transition—when buildings, industries, and systems are falling out of use but not yet erased. His latest photobook, Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project (MIT Press), is a concentrated expression of that long-running interest, focused on the massive concrete coaling towers that once fueled America’s steam-powered railroads.
Built primarily between the 1910s and 1930s, coaling towers were essential infrastructure, designed to rapidly refill locomotive tenders with coal. When railroads converted to diesel power after World War II, the towers became obsolete almost overnight. Yet many still stand today. Not because anyone made a sentimental choice to preserve them, but because they are extraordinarily difficult to remove. “They’re made of concrete and they’re all rebar,” Brouws says. “There’s reinforced steel that runs throughout, so they’re very hard to take down.”
Brouws came to the project almost by accident. While looking at a photobook by a younger photographer, he noticed an image of a coaling tower paired with an unrelated photograph. The image stuck with him. Curious, he searched online and discovered a Wikipedia page cataloging every coaling tower still standing in North America. The list included names, locations, and GPS coordinates. “I was just aghast,” Brouws recalls. “I thought they were mostly gone. And the number was over a hundred.”
Visit Chronogram Magazine for the full article.
View Jeff Brouw’s Artist Page