PROVO — It took several years for Chris Dunker to get permission to photograph the demolition of the Geneva Steel plant in Vineyard.
But he persisted in his quest, making telephone calls and sending e-mails to company officials until they tired of him and gave permission if, in return, he would take portraits of company executives.
"I knew it had to be documented, or it would be lost," Dunker said, "so I just kept after them."
Once he had the green light, he began a vigil that brought him from Logan, where he has a studio, to Vineyard several times a month for the next three years. He watched equipment taken apart, huge piles of scrap hauled away and whole buildings dismantled.
He captured images on film that would live forever — images that represented 57 years of steelmaking and the blood, sweat and tears of generations.
Dunker received a bachelor's degree in photography from California Polytechnic State University and a master's of fine arts in photography from Utah State University. He was an assistant professor of photography at USU from 1998 to 2002.
"I grew up on a Navy base in California near China Lake," he said, referring to the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. "The desert there was punctuated with industrial complexes that afforded interesting visual images," Dunker said.
"Also, my dad was a serious amateur photographer. He loved to photograph these modern ruins, so there's a family interest there."
The 39-year-old photographer is also documenting changes in Cache County and Park City.
Dunker said the project was immensely interesting as the landscape changed from week to week.
"As buildings were removed, it opened up new views," he said. He also appropriated the use of what is called "rephotographic surveying," which is to photograph a scene years later from the same place.
Dunker has more than 1,000 images, all photographed on large-format sheet film.
He invested his own money in the project and doesn't like to think about how much he spent on film, time and gas.
"That's a scary figure for me to think about," he said.
He's not really expecting a financial return on his investment.
"The return will be in its integration into history," he said.
His Geneva work will be exhibited at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art beginning at the end of the week. He's pleased to be able to put his work on public display and realizes that for him, the accompanying publicity and interest in his photographs can boost his freelance career.
He's also satisfied with the overall result of his effort.
"Every day was like that, a 'Wow!' day," he said.
He has some favorites among the 60 photos in the BYU exhibit.
"'Roller Dismantle Flare' is one of my favorites because it begins to demonstrate the malleability of the camera and the film and the lens. You have artificial-light color, motion and a light flare. It also shows the degree of destruction in a strangely peaceful, calm setting."
"Dunker's photographs are both document and poetic form, recording the appearance while musing over the fate of the facility and its former occupants," said Museum of Art photography curator Diana Turnbow. "To those formerly employed at the steelworks, the photographs reveal familiar spaces made unfamiliar by stillness and vacancy. To others, the building interiors and machinery reveal an exotic world of heightened color and industrial forms.
"While Dunker's photographs document a specific site, they prompt thoughtful reflection upon the intricate global network of finance, commerce and government policy that brought Geneva Steel and other steel production facilities to this end," Turnbow said.
Geneva Steel was built during World War II and produced its first steel for West Coast shipyards in 1944. The plant remained in operation until 2001. Geneva Steel declared bankruptcy early in 2002, and by the end of the year, the company began to liquidate its assets and make plans to demolish the physical plant.
Dunker said he wishes something had been saved on the site, a building or a piece of equipment that could be made into a monument to the once robust industry giant that was the largest steel plant west of the Mississippi River in the 20th century.
"The reuse of existing structures is always awesome," he said.
If you go ...
What: "Dismantling Geneva Steel"
Where: BYU Museum of Art, Campus Drive, Provo
When: Friday-Nov. 1, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday noon-5 p.m.
Of special note: Artist lecture and exhibition preview on Thursday, 7-9 p.m.
Cost: Free
Phone: 422-8287
Web: moa.byu.edu
Editor's note: Joseph A. Cannon, editor of the Deseret Morning News, is a former chairman of the board and CEO for Geneva Steel.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com