Overview

In this ode to Connecticut's Naugatuck River Valley, vibrant photos and moving poetry relate the region's legendary industrial history and ponder its legacy. The story begins in 1802, when two metalworking families joined forces to manufacture brass. Business soared during the War of 1812 with the demand for buttons, and soon brass parts became essential in the age of steam and electricity. As large-scale brass manufacturing grew across what became known as Brass Valley, mill towns along the river, such as Torrington and Waterbury, developed into thriving cultural centers. This continued until 2014, when the last plant closed, and the tradition of soot-covered workers charging generations-old furnaces came to an end. This poignant elegy captures the glowing metal flying through the air at the Ansonia foundry in its final days, as well as abandoned opera houses and train tracks, the vestiges of a dying infrastructure and American way of life. AUTHOR: Emery Roth has been shooting photographs since childhood. He studied both design and language arts at Carnegie-Mellon University, simultaneously earning degrees in architecture and literature. His photographic passions lead him to careful compositions under natural light only, but no image is finished without slow development of the image's full potential in the darkroom of his computer. His pictures and his experiences shooting them inspire his writing. After 40 years living and teaching in Connecticut's ""Northwest Hills,"" he became fascinated with the old mill towns of the Naugatuck Valley and their history, and he began following the tracks through old ruins until he was led to the last functioning brass mill. For the past four years he has been photographing 236 colour photographs

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Emery Roth II earned degrees in architecture and literature from Carnegie-Mellon University. After 40 years living and working in Connecticut’s “Northwest Hills,” he became fascinated with the old mill towns of the Naugatuck Valley.

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