My friend Chris... writer of the "Off the Beaten Path" website, in collaboration with his wife Connie... sent me a link to an archive of over 800 color images taken in Saskatchewan, mostly in the 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's. Most of these seem to be scans of Kodachrome color slides. They have that obvious color palette of the now defunct Kodachrome process... gosh I miss those days....
As I was looking through all of these fantastic images I recognized an old store called Islands. This was located in Scotsgard, Saskatchewan. This color image was taken in June of 1955. Margarit and I were exploring in the area back in 2000 and I took a 4x5 negative of the old store, with the vandalized and cannibalized old gas pump out front. A print of this negative is included in my Procession West exhibition, currently on tour throughout western Canada. I drove through the area about three years ago when I was down to Estevan for a skylight project. By that time the store and the gas pump were gone. This is reminiscent of some of the "Then and Now" projects that Chris and Connie include on their website. Here is my version of that concept...
Check out some of Chris and Connie's projects and adventures at www.bigdoer.com
Look at all those shiny new cars in 1955, all the people milling about, all that life. Hard to believe it's the same place. Love that art-deco style lettering.
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