Located at the entrance of Salt Lake City International Airport, “The Peaks” art installation features five 35-ft to 90-ft-high “peaks” crafted from Corten weathering steel that were fabricated in Germany and assembled on site.
Photographer Sue Zaybal captured this image of metal artist Vinny Lopez of Meta Designs performing final structural welding details to the inside of the tallest peak.
Zaybal had been photographing the construction of this piece for several weeks with her Canon EOS 7D Mark II, using a 17-40mm lens. “The corrugated steel on the outside always created interesting lighting effects on the inside,” she says. “Vinny was sandwiched into a corner, with the arc light and the sparks, and soon forgot I was there snapping photos.”
Zaybal’s interest in photography began as a teen in the late 1970s, shooting with a 35mm film camera. She says when she joined the Salt Lake City Airport’s redevelopment team in 2013, her boss “knew that I liked to take photos, so he added it to my official duties as the document control manager of the project.” “The Peaks” was designed by Napa, Calif., artist Gordon Huether.