In Quarries of New England, Steven Keirstead creates photographic diptychs and triptychs of abandoned rock quarries in the six New England states. Most of the early stone quarries ceased operations due to a change in construction techniques and road materials and the quarries reverted to a natural state. The last active New England quarry closed in 1963.

Keirstead’s series, Quarries of New England, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography from April 6^th through May 28^th, 2017. An opening reception will take place on Sunday, April 9^th, 2017 from 4-6 PM. Keirstead will do an informal talk on his exhibition at 3:15 PM on April 9, 2017.

Keirstead says that his photo series “documents the rebirth of abandoned quarries as something else, as wildness reclaims what industry left behind.” He goes on to say that, “Slowly, human alterations to the landscape were obscured, but not erased. Vegetation grew back, open pits filled with water, iron and steel tools rusted, and wooden derricks rotted.”

Steven Keirstead was born in Saigon, lived Chiang-Mai, Thailand with his family for several years and all returned to their North Carolina hometown of Brevard. Keirstead received a B.A. in Biology/Art and Art History as well as a BFA from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Currently, Keirstead works as a biologist at Harvard University’s Knowles Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories, supporting labs in Life Sciences. He resides in Boston.

Steven exhibited in the group show Light and Vision 2 at the Rice Media Center during FotoFest 2010, in Fresh Works at Flash Forward Festival Boston 2011, in New England Scapes in 2011 at Gallery Seven in Maynard, Massachusetts, and at auctions for the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. Steven organized a solo exhibit of his Quarries of New England portfolio at The Blue Hill Public Library in Maine in June 2015, and recently showed triptychs of Boston alleyways at night in the group exhibit Night Becomes Us at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Keirstead avidly continues his photographic endeavors.