The Dakota Ridge Gallery in Jim Thorpe will present photographs by Bethlehem photographer Peter Treiber on June 16 in a show entitled The Real Steel, a retrospective of what Bethlehem Steel was like in the 1980’s as it sought to stave off the effects of foreign competition. 

The subjects of these images range from the blast furnace floor where workers guide rivers of molten steel, to the jobsite where the finished steel is used in skyscrapers. Viewing these photographs, one can’t help but wonder how an operation of such gigantic scale and in which there was so much technological investment, could just simply cease functioning. From there it is impossible not to wonder about the human cost of Bethlehem Steel’s demise and what managerial decisions and market upheavals led to it. 

Peter Treiber has been a professional commercial photographer for over 30 years. Early in his career he worked for Bethlehem Steel where his job found him shooting in an often dangerous environment capturing the daily life at the plant, the explosive environment and the struggles of a company trying to adjust to a rapidly globalizing market. 

The images are especially unique in that there have been many shows of post-demise images of the lifeless plant where the viewer is left to wonder what once was. The Real Steel is one of the first gallery shows to provide glimpses of a fully-functioning, modernized Bethlehem Steel through the eyes of a practicing, well-trained photographer using the finest photographic equipment then available. 

Call the gallery at 570-325-2082 for more information.