Melissa Mercier – Concrete Shrine

I’m inspired by concrete. I love the stuff! It’s rough, it’s strong, it holds the world together. Often it is cast as a villain in society under the dark moniker of “the concrete jungle”, but I celebrate its presence as the monochromatic hero in our daily lives. Clean edges, sharp angles, it’s truly the putty of the modern sculptor. Nothing takes the wind out of my sails like seeing someone putting a fresh coat of beige paint over the neutral appeal of hardened liquid stone. Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, I am extremely fortunate to pass by the chiseled achievements of the master, Arthur Erickson on a daily basis. He has taken the ruggedness of cement and smoothed it into perfect silk scarves that stretch architectural canvas over steel frames with a glorious result. Other concrete worshipers out there will understand my obsession. Even the random air pockets and flaws are as inspirational to me as the lines in a perfect brush stroke in a painted masterpiece.

In November 2009, I met up with my husband in Vegas while on a break from recording his album in Los Angeles. (He’s in a rock band, no pun intended) As the poker chips clinked and clacked in the casino where I joined the poker obsessed band, all I could think about was the Hoover Dam. It took some convincing, but I managed to drag a few band members away from the tables for a day over the Arizona border to the concrete shrine.

As we crossed the threshold and passed through security, my first view of the Dam came into focus. There’s no doubt, this is the Disney Land of concrete! Not quite as ancient as Stonehenge, but every bit as impressive.

There’s a lot to take in here. The details of designers Gordon B. Kaufmann and Allen Tupper True are definitely the “Tea Cups” and “It’s a Small World” rides of the area. With my Hasselblad and my Phase One back, I chose to focus on the dam itself, and what a ride it is! A total of 3,250,000 cubic yards (2,480,000 m3) of concrete was used in the dam, which is enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. Over 100 people lost their lives in the construction of Hoover, which is not hard to believe after standing at the top of this monster.

The lines are spectacular. The curvature is breathtaking. I tried to capture clean aspects of the dam, offsetting its colossal scope with the simplicity of a common service ladder.

The heat was intense during the day of the shoot, over 40 degrees Celsius. In order to get the shots I wanted, I often had to straddle the barrier fence and maneuver sketchy ground, not that I recommend risking personal safety, but sometimes you have to push the boundaries. It’s amazing that such a beautiful subject can produce power for a large part of 3 States. On this particular day, it energized me completely. I must say, I could spend a month shooting this goliath and ever so patient model.

We drove back to Las Vegas as the sun went down on the desert. Ah Sin!, a little sushi bar in Paris Paris, was the perfect ending to a creative day.

Complete Gallery at:
www.melissamercier.com