Lumen is a body of photographic work which explores the idea of transition in spatial, temporal, and conceptual terms.  The setting for all of the images is the Conesville Power Plant, an energy nexus connecting Appalachian coal country with central and southern Ohio.  Located near Coshocton, Conesville provides the electricity that powers the daily routine of nearly a million Ohio residents and businesses.

Conesville is the manifestation of our energy-filled lives.  It is also the natural outcome of Ohio-born Thomas Edison’s great invention, the electric light bulb.  As such, the power plant is a fossilized relic of our past just as it powers our present.  Those who use its electricity are connected to its history and positioned in relation to the power it currently generates.  We are as much complicit in its impacts as we are compliant in the necessity of its existence.  Lumen sheds light on these complicated relationships by sharing glimpses of the machines, processes, and people that together transform the bituminous coal of Appalachia into the lifeblood of modern living.

See "Selected Works" above for Lumen images and other work from the same project at Conesville Power Plant.

See below for video by Hai Nghiem, Museum Intern, Denison University