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Showing posts from February, 2019

the rush taking pictures

This space where I'm stood for this one was previously the dimly-lit floor of the Hoval commercial boiler factory, under its final incarnation. It was probably the tallest industrial building in Lincoln. I remember being scared working my way up the metal staircase to the walkways where the hoist operators were stationed. (Amongst many nervousnesses, fear of heights is one.) But mostly I remember an afternoon exhilarated making hundreds of pans of the rows of rooflights above and feeling entranced looking up and the extensive window structures. It felt like being in a cathedral, but an historic, obsolete entity that would leave no legacy. Then a lorry or some large-engined deisel vehicle came and pulled up outside and I could here some guys talking above the sound of the engine and expected at any moment to be busted. So I was hurrying to take more and more pictures of the rooflights in those final minutes... and those men never came in, eventually driving away around the back of

sub-station

I've framed this pretty badly as it makes this sub-station look tiny, in fact it's as tall as a two storey building. I'm guessing it supplies/supplied the power requirements of all the factories along this road. There were about ten of them, several are still standing but being razed and two or three still occupied for the moment at least, caught in the middle of the ongoing land clearance programme.

skateboarders 2 photographer 1

I took a lot of internal and exterior mirror shots around here a year or so ago, both in a warehouse that previously stood back by that sub-station in the distance, and on the wasteland off to the right. The last time I went in the warehouse there were two skateboarding boys using boards and debris to make ramps. It was a warm day and I put maybe a couple of hours in taking pictures but they were there before me and were still going strong when I was done, boy-talk and the clatter of their boards interrupting the silence of the big, empty space.

Through the gate and into the light

I wasn't feeling well enough to go out but the big, beautiful sun was eventually too tempting. After taking the weekly though-the-gate picture of the nearby closed agri-chemicals factory I cycled on to the big closed factories being demolished about half a mile away. All these buildings have become relics just in the last few years. Unusually there was no-one on-site but the access gate for the demolition crew was open so I had an easy in. With access limited I'm usually photographing into the light at these places and limited to very few viewpoints. As for the restriction to contre-jour it's not an effect I like or the lens/sensor of the tiny camera I shoot with can cope with very well, usually flaring out splodges of pink and purple into the shadows and badly over or under exposing. I'm trying to adjust to it being OK.  It was gently warm for February but the intense bright sunshine wasn't strong enough to quite lift the vapour even from the early afternoon air.

24.02.19

Chris Killip and Tony Ray-Jones

Killip photos 1981-84, Ray-Jones c. 1667

Chris Killip: zines

collectordaily review here ponybox website

previously, flare

de facto

industrial storage tanks through trees

Previously; new build homes through trees, Oct 17 2016 , and March 26 2017

Things that shook

This former chemical factory is slowly being pulled down. It's the one post-industrial location I previously found the guts to take pictures of myself in. A big, desolate space, feeling scared of being chanced upon at any moment. Windy weather constantly lifted a big corrugated metal sheet suspended over the frontage, and each time it fell back it sent a thunderous boom reverberating through the whole building. If I wasn't shaking enough already.

ghosts

The tall brick frontage of this former factory site is pretty much all that remains from demolition work over the last few months. That and the metalwork structure visible in the foreground. The remaining footings going off into the distance give an idea of the depth of the building that once stood there. The piece still in place may have been left standing to help ensure the brick frontage doesn't collapse in high winds. A tennis ball sized hole in a piece of board that had been nailed up was just sufficient to put a small camera through, otherwise from outside in the street the building still looks completely intact.

the arc of the hand in february

waste land

It was a bright, cold afternoon yet I cycled to the wasteland through the fence behind Tesco car park expecting it to be in shadow, it's a gloomy place.  I walked around to the north side where a path runs alongside the railway line fencing. In the distance beyond was a plant hire yard where I could see bright orange and yellow painted powered access platforms. These dropped out of sight behind fencing as I got nearer. Several tents came into view  a short way ahead as I walked along taking pans. Then voices began to converse from inside and I thought perhaps my presence had been noted and was not particularly welcome, but there was no sense of threat. That was far enough for me. I don't want to intrude. I stopped and slowly turned away and took one last picture facing west. As I did so the camera casing came apart in my hands.

retail (closed)

sloping factory