Coal in Alberta

For the past three years or so my friends Nigel, Court, Fred and Arturo, from the Monochrome Guild, have been working with me on a themed photography project.  Initially it was a historic project that was going to document the remnants of the coal mining industry in Alberta.  With the recent decision by our Provincial Government to open the eastern slopes of the Rockies to new mining activity, this became a very political issue.  There has been a huge backlash in the province from much of the population.  The majority appears to be against destroying our mountains and water for some coal, that would ultimately be sold to China.

We elected to expand our project and not only document the historic aspect of mining, but also to illustrate some of the current mining activities.  Earlier this spring I began submitting our project to various art galleries to see if we would be accepted for an exhibition.  So far we have been accepted for two shows.  The first one will be in October and November of 2021 at the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery.  The second will be in June and July of 2022 at the Leighton Art Center.  The title of the exhibition is "Coal in Alberta... a journey to obsolescence"

With that October deadline looming I decided it was high time that I get busy and start printing some of my images.  So, yesterday I printed two negatives to 16" x 20".  Each participating photographer will be showing five images, for a total of twenty five.  So, I only need to print three more.  The two that I printed were a detail shot of a vandalized air compressor at the Greenhill Mine in Blairmore, and a shot of the showers at the Brazeau Collieries in Nordegg.  The snapshots below are of the prints in a tray of clearing agent as I worked on them yesterday.