Chemical Plant

Fifteen years ago, back in the spring of 2001, I went out exploring at an abandoned chemical plant in central Alberta.  I seem to recall that I was there on more than one occasion.  On one of the trips Margarit and my friend Jon were with me.  The site was obviously abandoned, the fence was deteriorated, and the buildings were open.  We explored there for quite a while and took a lot of photographs.  I have some that were shot on 35mm color transparency film... probably Fujichrome Velvia.  I also have a few large format negatives that I shot with my Sinar F1 view camera.

A short time later... I don't recall exactly when... security at the site was increased.  The fence was patched up and I seem to recall that there were security staff on duty.  At some point after that the buildings were all torn down.  I remember driving by on a few occasions and seeing all of the equipment in the process of being dismantled and hauled away.  I forgot about the place for many years and simply wrote it off as a missed opportunity.  Recently I took a look at the site on the Google Earth program and discovered that there appeared to be some stuff left on the site.

This past weekend, when I was out on a day trip with my friends Jon and Jeff, we decided to check it out.  The site has fallen into a state of further disrepair.  There is some sort of activity taking place there as there is a little bit of new infrastructure in one corner.  We wandered around the site for a while and for the most part all we found were the foundations of what had once been there.  There was an old turbine generator, or perhaps more accurately, the carcass of one... left in one corner of the site, and a little bit of junk left around it.  Perhaps one day I will return, under better lighting conditions and with a sky that is not completely blank, and attempt to record what remains...

Here are a number of scans of the 35mm slides that we took on that day 15 years ago...

Here are some scans of the few large format negatives that I took at the site.  I know that they were taken on the afternoon of April 1st 2001.  I'm not sure if the color slides were taken the same day, or perhaps a week or two prior.  I didn't keep very detailed notes on my color slides.

These last few snapshots are color digital ones, taken last weekend when I was out with Jon and Jeff.  I am encouraged that at least a little bit still remains at this site, but disappointed that I largely missed out on such a great opportunity.  I have learned this hard lesson that when I come across something worthy of some serious photography to not put it off and to capture it while I can.  Some things remain for decades and I have had the opportunity to return again and again.  Other subjects, like this one, can be gone before you realize it.