雄伟的胡佛大坝从土地开发商和农民的梦想开始，成为大萧条时期最雄心勃勃的土木工程项目。这个位于莫哈韦沙漠中部的地标，挡住了美国最大的人造湖，也变成了像拉什莫尔山或帝国大厦，一个视觉和文化的象征。这个图标的力量和意义不是通过一个单一的图像，而是通过政府宣传、广告、新闻和艺术中的无数视觉表现。甚至在大坝建成之前，这些图像就被用来塑造公众对该项目的看法，并将大坝塑造成美国西南沙漠经济帝国扩张的关键。
安东尼·F·阿里戈（Anthony F.Arrigo）研究了大量原始资料和档案材料，以追踪该项目从最早的插图展示到其建筑的纪实摄影，以及后来在商业促销、美术摄影和绘画中对该结构的描绘。通过几十年的图像轨迹分析胡佛大坝，而不是通过对其建设的叙述，阐明了建设胡佛大坝过程中潜在的文化和生态需求，包括宗教教义和美国农业运动的影响。阿里戈还讨论了这幅图像中对劳工、妇女、少数民族、自然和技术的各种描绘。随着时间的推移，权力和统治的视觉图标被商业化，以销售汽车、度假等。
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Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Icon
The mighty Hoover Dam, starting as a dream of land developers and farmers, became the most ambitious civil engineering project of the Great Depression. This landmark in the middle of the Mojave Desert, holding back the largest man-made lake in America, also became, like Mount Rushmore or the Empire State Building, a visual and cultural icon. The power and meanings of this icon came not through a single image but via myriad visual representations, in government propaganda, advertising, journalism, and art. Even before it was built, these images were used to shape the public’s perception of the project and frame the dam as the linchpin to an expanding American economic empire in the desert Southwest.
Anthony F. Arrigo has researched a wide array of primary sources and archival materials to trace the project from its earliest representations in illustrations to the documentary photography of its construction and later depictions of the structure in commercial promotions, fine art photography, and paintings. Analyzing Hoover Dam through the trajectory of imagery across several decades, rather than the narrative of its construction, illuminates the underlying cultural and ecological imperatives in the drive to build it, including the influence of religious doctrine and the American agrarian movement. Arrigo also discusses various portrayals of laborers, women, minority groups, nature, and technology in this imagery. In time, the visual icon of power and domination was commercialized to sell cars, vacations, and more.
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