With her documentary project Pictures, Maps, Shadows, photographer Leslie Grant told a complex and layered story of the American Rock Salt Hampton Corners Mine in Livingston County, New York. The project was created in collaboration with architect Alex Terzich, employees of the mine and members of the local community, revealing both physical and social realities of the salt mine, and how labor defines people and places. Currently, she is at work on The Forestry Project, a documentary about logging in Fernie, British Columbia, this time collaborating with photographer Al Bersch and the forestry company Tembec.

Grant uses photography as a tool for locating social and personal identity within a community and larger culture. For each project, she combines her own photographs with archival photography, found images, photos and stories donated by her subjects, and other material gleaned through experiences like site visits and tours from local residents. The result is a compelling narrative portrait, where multiple perspectives combine and collide to reveal a new way of knowing the subject.

In 2008, Grant is putting those unique methods of research and creative inquiry to work in her own local area, collaborating with slowLab on ‘Slow Ways of Knowing: Domino’ to explore the little known human stories of the now-defunct Domino Sugar Refinery building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Slow Ways of Knowing >

Leslie Grant work >