Ravenswood Generating Station ("Big Allis"), Queens, NYC, 2024.
All the pixels, none of the air pollution, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53732990785/
#photography
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
3 points (100.0% liked)
Photography
0 readers
50 users here now
All things photography. Share your own original photos, your questions, your inspiration.
Rules
Share your own original photography. No NSFW images. Be Nice.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is a composite of two side-by-side images, each captured with the Rodenstock 50mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/5.6), shifted left and right +/- 12mm to produce a 205MP 2:1 aspect ratio final image.
The Ravenswood plant, along the East River in Long Island City/Astoria Queens, was built by Con Ed in stages during the early- and mid- 1960's. When opened, it had capacity for about 20% of the city's electricity demand, as well as producing co-generated steam for the city's steam loop.
Known locally as "Big Allis" (after Allis-Chalmers, the manufacturer of the largest of the four generators in the plant), Ravenswood is fired by both natural gas (now the primary fuel) and oil, and also has the capability (rarely used, as far as I know) to burn coal.
Ravenswood has been linked to a spike in asthma and other respiratory disorders among local residents. There is pressure to decommission the generators and replace them with battery banks to store renewable energy from upstate.
For industrial subjects especially, I usually end up preferring the most straightforward and boring perspective I can find that just lets the subject speak for itself. The masters of this approach were Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose "Basic Forms" work richly repays your attention if you like this kind of stuff. https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Bernd_and_Hilla_Becher/
(They would have undoubtedly gone for an overcast day to capture Big Allis, but I liked the clouds.)
@mattblaze@federate.social Thank you for all of the interesting details and link. I love photography and taking pictures, but I often feel as though I just got lucky. While this is a level of skill I can only ever aspire to at this point in life
@Star12Mt@masto.nyc Skill is just concentrated luck!
@mattblaze@federate.social
Grew up a few towns further west of West Allis, WI, yes, THAT Allis. Lots of early-stage IC engine manufacturing in WI, some survived after the first half of the 20th C.
Congratulations on the visit to Roosevelt Island! I hope you kept cool in the heat. When I grew up, we only ever called the power plant big Alice (no one ever spelled out "Allis" that I can recall), so thanks for looking into that!