FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Re: Coronado Museum Exhibit
Contact: Joe Ditler
619.435.7242

WORKING WATERFRONT CELEBRATED IN
CORONADO MUSEUM EXHIBIT

CORONADO -- A new photo exhibit, "Shift Change: Working Waterfront," opened at the Coronado Museum of History & Art March 5 and will ran through April 12, 2007.

The exhibit captured the essence of San Diego Bay's working waterfront industry. The collection of work was created as a photographic essay by artist Ming C. Lowe, a photographer specializing in industrial images.  

Lowe was commissioned by the Port of San Diego in 2006 to create a series of photographs. Her photo essay captured images such as enormous steel cranes, a cavernous vessel with an inside resembling a parking lot, an anchor the size of a car, miles of rope, and a sky that is both eerie and ethereal.

Shooting mostly at night, Lowe's imagery featured the mesmerizing colors produced from a twilight sky juxtaposed with the intense steam and sparks from a blowtorch. Portraits of waterfront workers depicted the pride in their work and elation of the day's accomplishments.

Special to the exhibit was a sculpture in the center of the gallery designed and constructed by Coronado Museum curator Emily Allen depicting a working waterfront from a century ago.

The sculpture contained a ship's wheel, compass, port and starboard lights, a harpoon, oars, and even rope ratlines reaching up into the ceiling. The items were on loan from the San Diego Maritime Museum.

"The waterfront was the center of all activity in San Diego 150 years ago," said Joe Ditler, Executive Director of the Coronado Museum of History & Art. "Today our waterfront is but a backdrop to the Interstates. This exhibit was a rare look inside San Diego's working waterfront -- a look few ever have the opportunity to see."

The working waterfront photo exhibit was part of the Port's year-long celebration of its Decade of Public Art. For the previous several months, the Port had been hosting art events highlighting new public artworks along the tidelands of San Diego Bay.

Ming Lowe is a self-taught artist born in Washington D.C. but with close ties to San Diego. She attended the Bishops School and La Jolla High School, both in La Jolla, California and has family in Coronado. Her work, which includes both photography and painting, has been exhibited in galleries throughout California and Utah. Her gallery of work can be viewed on her website, www.mingclowe.com.

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