Liberty Ships: Photographs from the Kaiser Shipyards

2004

From 1942-1945 the Kaiser Shipyards in Portland and Vancouver churned out ships at record speed to support the war effort. The workings and workers of this massive project were captured by Kaiser photographs. Though artists like C. Herald Campbell and Louis Lee were hired to produce straightforward documentary images, their works reveal a different aesthetic influenced by modernist photograph that celebrates the raw industrial power and stark beauty of the shipyards.

Curated by Terry Toedtemeier