J Henry Fair: Abstraction of Destruction

J Henry Fair: Abstraction of Destruction

"If the pictures are not beautiful, the viewer will not stop to consider them, or cherish them."

—J Henry Fair
New York, New York 2012

At age fourteen, J Henry Fair acquired a Kodak Retina camera and later learned darkroom techniques as a teenager while working in a camera store in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. As a young street photographer, Fair took portraits of people and old machinery–which he believed symbolized society in decline. He earned a degree from Fordham University in New York City and worked construction jobs until his commercial photography business became successful.

Fair, who is primarily an American portrait photographer, is best known for his Industrial Scars series in which he researched the world's most egregious environmental disasters and create images that are simultaneously stunning and unsettling, which visually resemble abstract paintings. Fair captured these images from an open window of a small airplane a thousand feet above the Earth's surface.

Through his work, Fair wants to raise awareness about environmental issues. He describes his work and process this way:

Our consumption-based economy is wreaking havoc on the systems that sustain our life on Earth. I seek out the manifestations of this and create pictures. My goal is to produce beautiful images that stimulate an aesthetic response, and thus curiosity in the viewer about the causes, and hopefully personal involvement.

Ultimately, I want behavioral change. Every purchase decision should be made with the next generation in mind. Governments will not protect or respond to us, but corporations will respond to our direction. If we buy toilet paper made from post-consumer material, forests are saved (and all of the animals at home there, not to mention all of the carbon it sequesters). It's that simple.

In spite of the political nature of my work, I consider myself first and foremost an artist, someone who works in a given medium to convey a certain message, and hopefully entertains in the process.

Abstraction of Destruction combines beauty with the unpleasant realities of modern industrial life. Fair believes this combination of visual beauty and unsettling content will possibly lead to positive changes in human behavior and eventually, positive changes for the environment.

Photography is not permitted.
©2012 by San Francisco Airport Commission. All rights reserved