Exploring Historical Buffalo, New York

                                    (The Swannie House, Buffalo NY/Image copyright of Lieuxabandonnes)

I hopped on a Greyhound bus on Thanksgiving Day and headed to Buffalo NY. As it turns out, traveling the US on Thanksgiving isn't recommended; finding a meal or even snack is near impossible. One of my greatest memories of this trip was the hospitality and generosity of the bus driver who shared his thanksgiving meal with me. This was my final lasting impression of what it means to be an American before I headed home to Canada.The six days I spent in Buffalo would be my final photographic exploration of the USA, and it was a memorable visit to say the least.

I had some locations in mind to explore, but as it turned out, local advice changed my mind about where I'd actually explore. I stayed at the Buffalo Hostel and met three photographers who were exploring that week. I have to say that really was a bonus to have inside information ie routes of travel and so on. One of the photographers was a seasoned expert about the historical grain elevators of Buffalo NY and even offered to take me along and go down the elevator shoots together. Teach me the ropes, if you will.

I ended up declining after mulling this over a few days because I follow my intuition, and the thought of not having the physical strength to pull myself back up once down didn't seem terribly appealing ... maybe if I was 20 years younger ... As it turned out, intuition is best. A month later an injury from previous months manifested in Canada, whereby my neck and spine collapsed and was paralyzed for almost a year down my left side of my body. Due to my injuries, I'm very cautious about exploring, and as you know, while it doesn't happen often, some explorers have perished in unsafe buildings.

What remains memorable to me are the unintended discoveries along my route, like stumbling upon an abandoned fuel station called Sam's. That's a first. I've never seen so many American flags in any city, nearly every image has a flag somewhere. Up the road at the corner of Ohio and Michigan I stepped into the Swannie House for some downright good tender vittles and washed it down with a beer. Several hours of a constant drizzle of rain in late November left me cold to the bone, so stepping into the historical Swannie House wrapped up my visit to Buffalo in such a positive note.

The staff were super friendly, so I lingered at Swannie's listening to local history. I pulled myself away as I had a bus to catch in a few hours back to Canada. I stepped out the door into the cold rain on Ohio and made my way back to the hostel, threw my damp clothes into a dryer and said my final farewells to Buffalo NY.

                              (Old Hardie Kentucky Straight Whiskey/Images copyright of Lieuxabandonnes)

Manitoba Pool Grain Elevator History

Considered to be the oldest grain elevator of its kind in Canada, built-in 1897, by the Lake of the Woods Milling Co. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. it continued operations with several ownership changes until 1968. Since 1968, the oldest historical grain elevator in Canada has stood vacant and abandoned to this day. We know certain grain elevators have been transformed into small homes and bed and breakfast establishments over the last few decades, but we don't know why this grain elevator has stood abandoned as long as it has so far, to this date.

Abandoned Manitoba: Copley Anglican Church and Cemetery

(Copley Anglican Church, erected in 1892 (1967)

Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey)

 

((1967)Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey.)

Copley Anglican Church and Cemetery, originally known as St. George's Anglican Church, built-in 1892. Over time, as the original settlement passed away and diminished, the church deconsecrated in 1913. This historical church has remained in its remote location since 1913 untouched, except for folklore stories about it being used as a boot camp during the prohibition years and during the 1930s, locals attempted to protect this site by finally boarding up all doors and windows. Still fully intact in the 1960s, since then the natural environment has finally taken its toll upon this historical structure. In a 2011 exploration, the images reveal that only the outer walls remain intact and that nature since has ravished this historical site over time since 1913.

((2011) Source:G.Goldsborough)

Spring 2010 Abandoned Truck Revisited

Every season I go see my "beloved" truck; I suppose I sometimes call it a car unaware. What do I know? It is beauty in decay to me... I asked my friend recently why don't you go out and see it too, take some photos? He says because you have hundreds of them, why I need to go too?

I guess I see something he does not. That's ok.

The decay continues to mount and it seems rapidly to me. It's not a silent creeping. At least not any longer.

I am sad for the day that I will not have easy access to my beloved truck, still waiting for the perfect moment of lighting and season ... It's strange, but I enjoy this small pleasure ... Perhaps I've enjoyed the easy pleasure of having it nearby, always "there" ? Such a small comfort in a world always changing. Always tearing things down.

America's Wastelands

I was posting a Blue Man Group video earlier today and begun thinking about the wastelands of America I've witnessed in my personal explorations and travels. Urban and industrial decay is not only a tragedy of abandonment but of the environment.

Take, for instance, a small coal town in Pennsylvania - Centralia - where a mine fire has been burning under the ground for nearly 50 years. Centralia is now a ghost town, but the smoldering fire will burn hundreds of years spreading to nearby towns.

What to think of all this? I'm not sure entirely. But environmental disasters are some of the key forces behind cultural abandonment's. Man playing with nature as she builds her industrial playground have consequences. Below is Blue Man Groups video "Earth to America"!

Documenting Time: Abandoned Vehicle

These were captured in the season of winter, while I continue to document time with the same subject through the seasons. There's certainly a different perspective illuminated this round in comparison to summer or fall captures.

Snow can be a natural unifier in photos, and winter light usually elucidates a stark landscape due to the low angle of the sun. While the winter light and snow produce obstacles and undesired qualities at times, winter light also reveals deeper textures and soft hues amidst long shadows often associated with the winter light.

Winter light is indeed one of my favorite light sources. Fall is also one of my favorite light sources with all of it's red hues as the days shorten, mirroring the dramatic changes happening in the fading foliage.

Thus, I grouped my fall (early fall/late summer) collection of the abandoned car as the 'Eye of the Storm'. I may group this winter set as Fade to White, or Fade to Winter Light.

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Documenting Time

We're recording a slice of time each time we photograph a moment. Photographers have the ability to suspend a moment in time.

Many moments can never be captured again, and it's necessary to capture split seconds. Expressions of the human face, for instance, are fleeting seconds. Recording time can also be the moments of capturing the speed of the subject, or stopping the clock in a timeless scenery.

Documentary photographers are recording time. Moments of civil upheaval demand quick reflexes. Urban street photography requires a photographer's wits about them.

Urban photographers capturing the final remnants of abandoned places have little time in most cases, on location, and in the likelihood the structure may be removed at any time.

But recording time can be as unassuming as capturing the seasons and the hours of shifting light. It is true that time never stops providing the photographer with endless change all around them, even in the simplest, humblest moments and subjects.

Humble moments taken close to home can make some of the best photography. Many of these moments allow the photographer time to revisit the subject multiple times rendering a new perspective each and every visit.

You can never take enough captures. Capturing the same image over extended periods of time through the seasons, years, or changes in lighting allows the photographer to grow intimate with the subject and discover something new each time.

My abandoned car photographs are just this premise, visiting in the change of seasons.

All Material in this Photo Blog Gallery is Copyrighted & May not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my permission.
All Rights Reserved.