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Jeff Mulliken
Elm Street Dam, Kingston MA
The Jones River winds its way across my home town of Kingston, from Silver Lake to Kingston Bay. About halfway down its course is the Elm Street Dam. The Jones has been dammed in various locations by settlers since the late 1600’s, but this latest dam was built in the 1920’s. It’s actually a complex of falls, sluiceways, fish ladders, and pools.
This place fascinated me as a youngster. Perhaps it was the sound of rushing water, or the slight cool mist on a hot summer day, but more likely it was to enjoy the many ways the persistent Jones conquered the simple structural forms that make up this place.
Recently I found myself drawn back to the Elm Street Dam, to see it with new eyes, and through the lens of my camera.
And apparently, I arrived just in time. Through the efforts of the Jones River Watershed Association, funds have been raised and plans put in place to remove the dam. This effort is part of a movement across coastal New England to restore rivers to their original state as tidal estuaries, providing natural flood control, and allowing smelt, trout, shad, eels, and turtles to once again thrive in the full length of the these rivers.
So, I’m grateful for the opportunity to record what will soon become history, and look forward to returning when the restoration is complete.
For information on the Elm Street Dam removal project: https://jonesriver.org/ecology/dams/elm-street/
Artist Bio
Jeff Mulliken has practiced architecture for over 35 years, and has always maintained an interest in photography. His fascination with shape, form, color, and composition, essential to successful architectural design, inspires his photographic images. In recent years his architectural work focused on workplace interior design, where these same issues interface with the practical and functional needs of people at work. Jeff thinks that this has led him to be attracted to photographic subject matter in the everyday world around us.
His formal training includes photography courses in college, and classes at the New England School of Photography, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Griffin Museum of Photography, where he has exhibited his work.
Contact Jeff Mulliken