Superstructure. Photographs by Mark Power. Essay by David Chandler. Harper Collins Illustrated, London, 2000. 208 pp. Large quarto. First edition, first printing. Signed on title page. Hardbound in photo-illustrated dust jacket. Black-and-white and color reproductions.
See images from Superstructure on the Magnum site.
Mark Power's 2002 book
The Treasury Project is included in Parr & Badger, Vol. II. Like that book,
Superstructure "explores how the power of institutions is not only symbolized by, but is also manifest in the complexity of the structures they build..."
"Inspired by a global event, the Dome at Greenwich has been a British construction project of unprecedented ambition, a building site where records have routinely been broken, an engineering feat of mind-boggling statistics. Superstructure is a remarkable record of the Dome's genesis up to the day it was opened to the public, 1 January 2000.
"The photographer Mark Power was granted privileged access to the site by the New Millenium Experience Company; he first visited the North Greenwich peninsula in October 1996, and in well over one hundred subsequent trips recorded its transition from toxic wasteland to architectural icon. The Dome he portrays is a monument to human endeavor, a challenge of epic proportions realized against overwhelming odds, a place where colossal architectural components and brutal machinery have been tamed and harnessed through highly choreographed teamwork. His photographs are deliberately devoid of people - feeling that it would be inappropriate to focus on the role of individuals, he instead pays homage to the team spirit that has driven the project.
"Companies from virtually every sector of the British Economy, and further afield, have left their collective stamp on the Dome. Providing a counterbalance to Mark Power's photographs, a list of over 10,000 names records the contribution of the vast number of organizations and individuals without whose tenacity the project would simply not have been possible - from those who decontaminated the peninsula to those who welcomed the first public visitors. Focusing on the people behind the project, this comprehensive roll call gives a very different perspective on the human resources that have brought the Dome to life."--the publisher
