Radio Towers

These radio tower photographs were made over a six year period while I was working on a project photographing the Llano Estacado region of west Texas and eastern New Mexico. As anyone who has traveled on the Llano knows it isa very flat landscape. Anything that sticks up into the sky really sticks up. Although radio towers exist in the landscape everywhere, they seem to have an exaggerated presence on the Llano.

Most of the photographs were made at dusk and are viewed from the west. I use color negative film with an 8"x10' view camera and I make careful use of the tilts. I can only photograph one tower from one vantage point on any given night. I enjoy the fact that these photographs allow me the opportunity to make images with very seductive skies.

I think that photographs of radio towers symbolize the major shift in our 21st century culture away from the mechanical, industrial age of the drive-in movie screen to the electronic, industrial age of the radio tower. Whereas the large, white rectangular theater screen represented the earlier age, the radio tower signifies the later, contemporary age, with tera bytes of data screaming invisibly through the sky every second.

Steve Fitch