Elena Dorfman: Empire Falling

Los Angeles€“based photographer Elena Dorfman€s latest body of work presents American rock quarries as geologic phenomena, both conceptually and representationally. In Dorfman€s epic tableaux, the ancient sedimentation and erosion found at these sites form the basis for her complex and highly layered compositions. €œI manipulate and reconstruct the landscape,€ she says, €œreassembling the pictures just as the oldest rock begins at the bottom and works its way up to the surface.€ Empire Falling presents the abandoned and active quarries of the Midwest in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Executed over the course of several years, Dorfman€s images record both the minute and radical workings of nature, as these spaces give way to human intervention and exploitation.