Completed in 1973, Stelco Tower (now known as 100 King St. W.) is a modern steel office tower that has been a prominent part of Steeltown’s skyline for the past fifty years. When I moved to Hamilton from Toronto in 2018, the tower greeted me and became a kind of lighthouse, both geographically and emotionally. By photographing it, I got to know the city and found my footing. After recording it from both near and far, I began to recognize the value of these images as a document not just of the building, but of Hamilton at a point when it is on the cusp of a dramatic transformation into a much denser city.
This series is part of a larger photography project for which I produced: a limited edition hardcover book about my relationship with Stelco Tower; a zine with facts, highlights, and musings about its first five decades; and this series of fifty images of the building spotted within the city.
Sara Heinonen is a photo-based artist and writer living in Hamilton. Her images have been selected for juried and invited exhibitions in numerous galleries throughout Southern Ontario. She self-published the photobooks Stelco Tower: A Love Story (2023), My Year with a GIANT TIGER (2020), the zine 50 Years of Stelco Tower, and produced a series of HAMILTON Postcards using her street photography. Her books, including a collection of short fiction, Dear Leaves, I Miss You All (Mansfield Press, 2013) are available through the Hamilton Public Library.
