I remember a photography lecturer many years ago querying the idea of taking topographic style photographs in England, the light wasn't the same as in California. He seemed to have a point, even though in hindsight one could have referred to Bernd and Hilla Becher, the Europeans whose work was predominantly made in Germany, northern Germany, the Ruhr; but as a consequence their images seemed fairly miserable in comparison. Baltz did a commission, Maryland, at a higher latitude, and despite the flat light, it was a success. The weather might have looked cold and the tonal range sunk down around the deeper greys but the images were still clearly his, and amongst his best.
But Richard Woodfield at Trent was right about that blast furnace light having a special place in New Topographics and when just that kind showed up this weekend I was anxiously impelled to go take some pictures - despite feeling too old to be doing this anymore and a bit nervous about ending up having yet another chat with security who would presumably show up to point out to me that I was trespassing, again.
I did a recce on my way to the supermarket. Someone had trashed a length of fencing, possibly to get a vehicle in and load up with industrial scrap. Security are not the only people one can bump into at these places.