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Lost & Found: Underwater Ghost Town Resurfaces 30 Years Later

23 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned village from above

Like a corroded time capsule, this submerged village has risen from the depths after being flooded decades ago when the local lake broke its banks and left Epecuen under dozens of feet of water. In 1985, a rare weather pattern broke a nearby dam first, then the dike protecting the town, quickly making most of it uninhabitable. Today, long-term changes in the regional climate have brought down the overall level of the lake, resurfacing the town.

sunken village resurfaced underwater

Giving a tour of his devastated hometown, the man in the award-winning video above , Pablo Novak, claims his father predicted the return of water to the areas of land on which people were building back in the 1980s – at its peak, the place drew in over 25,000 tourists a year. Today, Pablo is the only remaining resident, slowly exploring the remnants now revealed as waters around the lake have lowered.

villa epecun from above

underwater village before after

Located near Buenos Aires, it is hard to imagine that this place – with a permanent population of 5,000 at one point – was once a busy destination from tourists around the country and even the world, renowned for its high-salinity lake in which people came to bathe. This salt content is largely responsible for the high levels of damage done to the town’s buildings and infrastructure during its years underwater.

underwater deserted abandoned buildings

underwater village ruins

slaughterhouse abandoned town

First, the fields began to flood, driving our narrator’s cows, horses, pigs sheep and goats back further onto land and forcing Pablo to buy a family home in a neighboring village. Now 85 years old, he always assumed the town would be rebuilt, but that has never come to pass.

sunken town ruins

sunken village washed roots

$abandoned underwater town resufraced$

Since the waters have receded, Pablo now tries to appreciate the solitude left in its wake and gives tours to those who come these days not to soak but to see the once-sunken village now risen once again to the surface. Images by Sam Verhaert, Jonathan Evans and Pablo Gonzales via Inhabitat.

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Town in a Tower: 14-Floor Highrise Houses Whole Alaskan Hamlet

14 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

town tower copy

High-minded Modernists of the mid-1900s envisioned futuristic all-in-one cities in the sky where we would work, place, live and love, but would have been surprised to learn that their ideal has perhaps been mostly closely realized in the remote village of Whittier, Alaska, where virtually everything happens under one roof.

town in tower thumbnails

A fourteen-story structure known as Begich Towers, formerly an army barracks, is host to most of the town’s residents as well as its post office, grocery store, health clinic, laundromat and church. Writer Erin Sheehy and photographer Reed Young (montage shown above) visited and photographed this remote village, traveling sixty miles from Anchorage, Alaska and through a 2.5 mile, one-lane tunnel to get to there.

town buckner building exterior

This is a place of extremes, which helps explain why its occupants are happy to stay indoors as much as possible – average snowfalls of 250 inches (up to 400 inches some years) and glass-shattering winds make using underground tunnels a preferred means of getting to the few other buildings in town, including the local school. The other large structure in the area is the Buckner Building, abandoned but favored by youth who need to get out and go somewhere.

town abandoned buckner building

Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation comes to mind, a Brutalist village-in-the-sky concept with alternating floors and complex sections designed to accommodate layers of living, working, shopping and recreating throughout. Ultimately its realization devolved into a typical apartment complex, but the external factors simply weren’t there to reinforce it as an internally self-sufficient community.

town glacier ice water

More from Young about the town year-round: “In the summertime Whittier is bustling. Seasonal workers come for jobs on fishing boats, charter boats, or in the cannery, and cruise ships bring hundreds of thousands of tourists to the harbor. But thriving harbor industries—freight, fishing, tourism—don’t seem to translate into growth for the city.”

town cruise ship port

Like a college town times a few thousand, with visitors far outnumbering actual residents – hundreds of thousand visit the area annually but most drop off for just part of a day then get back on their train or cruise ship and leave town again.

town in a tower

It is, in a way, a company town, but it can also be claustrophobic for those used to warmer climates and more private spaces. “The Alaska Railroad Corporation is the majority landowner in Whittier, but it doesn’t pay property taxes, and it employs few residents. A supply barge comes into town once a week, but most of the workers who unload the freight commute from Anchorage. Not everyone who tries to live in Begich Towers can take it—a newcomer from Florida compared it to jail—and there simply isn’t much space on which to build alternate housing” Aside from the four-image montage, additional images for this story by Travis, nate’sgirl, davidd, Frank Kovalchek, Ross Fowler and Brian Digital.

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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From the Dead: Businessman Resurrecting Canadian Ghost Town

24 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

ghost town resurrection

Built in the late 1970s, this mining village housed 1,200 people at its peak and was left effectively intact for over twenty years before being sold as a whole for $ 5,000,000 to an entrepreneur in 2004 who has worked on bring it back to life in the decade since. He has, however, had to adjust his plans to the market along the way – his latest endeavor: to revive it to fit its original purpose once more (image above by Andrea B).

ghost town street

kitsault abandoned mall hall

Located in northern British Columbia, Kitsault boasts a remarkable lack of decay, its infrastructure still mostly intact. It has over 100 houses and apartment buildings as well as a movie theater, hospital, shopping mall, recreation center and swimming pool.

kitsault resort town drawings

Krishnan Suthanthiran purchased the town with visions of turning it into a rural retreat for the creative class and has already spent over $ 10,000,000 repairing landscapes and fixing buildings.

kisault deserted mining area

kitsault swimming pool area

Still, much more work would have been required had the relocation of its previous occupants not been so hasty – they were moved almost overnight in the early 1980s, leaving almost everything intact behind them. Indeed, many of the spaces come complete with vintage furniture and decor dating back to the abandonment of the town.

kitsault deserted library room

kitsault abandoned library stacks

The idea has evolved over time, however, as commodities markets have rebounded – this time liquid natural gas may be the key to the area’s success. In the end, Kitsault could once again become what it was to begin with: a mining town.

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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How To Source Locations For Portraits In Your Own Town

20 Nov

I’ve noticed that a lot of articles on scouting locations focus on travel — we have a wonderful one on this website listing 100 amazing places to shoot. That is, however, not actionable advice for everyone. Some photographers can’t afford to travel regularly, some aren’t interested in it, and some simply focus on a different type of photography. For that Continue Reading

The post How To Source Locations For Portraits In Your Own Town appeared first on Photodoto.

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Gravesend: Fake Town for Simulating Crimes, Riots & Terrorism

19 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Travel & Urban Exploration. ]

artifical street urban complex

Like the set of a movie or setting of a video game, this surreal suburban facility could easily be mistaken for a real place at first glance – in reality, the installation is an elaborate artificial environment used by police to simulate complex and dangerous situations (photos by Chris Clarke).

artificial empty building facaDE

As Geoff Manaugh summarizes the setup, “the barren streets and hollow buildings of this militarized non-place were designed for use as an immersive staging ground for police-training exercises, fighting staged riots, burglaries, bank robberies, and other crimes” including hostage situations and terrorist attacks.

artifical training ground building

Located in Gravesend, Kent, just outside of London, this strange facsimile of an urban complex is devoid of residents but comes complete with parks, nightclubs, estates, aircraft, trains and tube stations (for hijacking and bombing simulations). Its population, instead, consists of the ebb and flow of the Metropolitan Police, of which the complex accommodate up to 300 militarized participants at one time.

artificial city for police

Open “in 2003 to provide London’s officers with firearms and public order training,” the complex’s designers at Advanced Interactive Systems (AIS) “provided all specialist firearms-related design, fit-out of the live-fire ranges with internal ballistic and anti-ricochet finishes, simulation and targetry equipment, and range sound systems.”

artificial backdrop city street

The same company was later contracted to “upgrade the specialist indoor shooting ranges and simulation systems [to] feature High-Definition projection systems, additional support for standard issue firearms and less-lethal devices, laser-based 3D virtual training environments, and a course editor for creating bespoke training exercises.” Even these official descriptions lend themselves to a range of dystopian speculation and dark interpretation.

artificial complex urban tube

Author of Subtopia, Brian Finoki notes that this dull gray place is deeply bizarre in nature, “a city standing on the planet for one purpose: to be rioted, hijacked, trashed, held hostage, sacked, and overrun by thousands of chaotic scenarios, only so that it can be reclaimed, retaken, re-propped in circuitous loops of more dazzling proto-militant exercise, stormed by a thousand coordinated boots for eternity, targeted by hundreds of synchronized crosshairs of both lethal and non-lethal weapons.”

artifical commercial street facade

Photographer Chis Clarke, whose Flickr photo set is worth seeing in its entirety, suggests a bold take on the complex and its meaning in the contemporary cultural context of the United Kingdom: “Gravesend can be interpreted as a warning – a prophecy of society’s potential to alienate itself from itself, and kill its collective identity. This surreal installation serves as a chilling account of the death of community in 21st century Britain.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Travel & Urban Exploration. ]

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Ghost Town: Shooting in Kolmanskop

28 Oct

Nature photographer Erez Marom captures a wide range of subjects, from macro shots of insects to some of the world’s most dramatic landscapes. In this article, he shares images from a very unusual location – the ghost town of Kolmanskop, in Namibia. Abandoned over fifty years ago, Kolmanskop was a diamond-mining town, and is currently being reclaimed by the desert. Click through to take a look at Erez Marom’s images and learn about his process

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Giving Up the Ghost: Residents of Toxic Town Won’t Leave

10 May

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Picher Ghost Town 1

Hell no, the last residents of Picher, Oklahoma won’t go – even though their town is officially labeled a hazardous waste site, and there are only 10 of them still clinging to the remains of its past. Picher isn’t even considered a town anymore. It’s just a Superfund site dominated by mountains of mill sand and tailings from the old lead-zinc mining fields, with extensive subsurface excavation putting everything in danger of caving in. Municipal activities stopped in 2009, and the vast majority of its residents vacated the town by 2013.

Picher Ghost Town 2

(top image via randylane; above image via claycountypara)

At its prime in the 1920s, Picher had a population of over 20,000, with 14,000 people working in the mines. Between 1917 and 1947 the town produced over $ 20 billion worth of ore, including more than fifty percent of the lead and zinc used during World War I. But as mining activity slowed down, the population dwindled. Then, the extent of the contamination was discovered.

Picher Ghost Town 3

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Once the mining ceased, Picher essentially became a toxic waste dump for the contaminated water from 14,000 abandoned mine shafts as well as 70 million tons of mine tailings and 36 million tons of mill sand and sludge. At one point, the piles of debris were so high, they looked like mountains dominating the otherwise flat landscape. These piles of mining waste were located right beside neighborhoods, the wind blowing the particles all over everything and everyone. Kids played on those piles of waste, and went swimming in tailings ponds full of toxins. A 1996 study found lead poisoning in 34% of Picher’s children.

Picher Ghost Town 4

(image via: wikimedia commons)

The town was declared the Tar Creek Superfund Site, and in 2006, a mandatory evacuation was announced, with all residents bought out by the State of Oklahoma. The fact that all of that mining had seriously compromised the ground beneath the entire town made it even more dangerous – and then, in 2008, an F4 tornado came along and destroyed 150 homes. Picher is officially uninhabitable, but that hasn’t stopped about ten people from clinging to it anyway.

Picher Ghost Town 5

(image via: marada)

MSNBC reports that six homes and one business remain, even as everything around them is demolished, the final residents insisting that when the Superfund cleanup is complete, Picher will rise again. It’ll take at least thirty years for that to happen, however, since the Tar Creek Superfund Site is just one of four sub-sites within the Tri-State Mining District, all of which continues to contaminate towns throughout Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma with toxic runoff.

Picher Ghost Town 6

(image via: marada)

Pharmacist Gary Linderman runs the sole remaining business in Picher, which acts as a social hub for former residents who still travel there to get their medicine despite relocating to other cities. “I think there’s going to be a resurgence in Picher – in time,” says Linderman.

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Interview with Jim Mortram – Small Town Inertia

27 Apr

Jim-Mortram-interview-12

Recently Darren brought to my attention a guy in the UK doing something extraordinary. A project with images so emotion filled and powerful, images that reach into the souls of the people in the photographs and brings them out in the image. I reached out to him and asked him for an interview and he was most gracious to agree!

So I’m proud to share this with you. Jim Mortram and his Small Town Inertia project. The interview is a bit long, but I promise you it’s worth it as we cover a gamut of topics and look through many of his images. If you want to learn about doing photography not as a technician, but as a human being. Photography for the sake of just doing photography and capturing people’s stories – I encourage you to listen.

Jim-Mortram-interview-07

Watch and learn as Jim and I discuss a ton of different photography related things, and a few more deeper philosophical, life things. There’s some good lessons in here – make sure you watch the whole video. Tell me what nugget of information you get. Here are a few of the topics and highlights of our chat:

shooting with your heart first and your camera second
listening to people, “shut up and listen”
creating a legacy of the people in your photos (not subjects, listen and find out why I’m not using that word)
how he defines himself not as an artist but as a conduit or facilitator to get people’s message across
that it’s about mutual trust between photographer and person being photographed, trust is key to the afore mentioned success
thoughts on gear and why Jim believes everyone should be forced to start with a crappy camera – by law
get a bad camera and learn to get the best out of it, then advance – cameras are just tools
a camera doesn’t give you any special rights or power – the rules of behaviour still apply

“be nice, be attentive, give a damn, listen”

Jim-Mortram-interview-05

More nuggets from Jim Mortram:

be really interested in people, their hopes and dreams – otherwise you’re just going to get a picture of someone looking at a camera
motives – if you start looking for accolades it will change the relationship with that you do – photography
the story doesn’t stop when you’ve pressed the shutter or edited the images
why posting photos on Facebook just to get likes isn’t why he does photography, he just wants to be himself and why you want to do the same
think about the things that matter to you the most before starting any long term projects, especially if it involves another person

“I talk more than I shoot and I listen more than I shoot” – Jim Mortram

We reference a guy named Simon in the video – here are some images of Simon. You can read about his story on Small Town Inertia here.

Jim-Mortram-interview-06

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Jim-Mortram-interview-25

Jim-Mortram-interview-21

Another one of the stories on Jim’s site that touched me was that of David. A man who lost his eyesight in a tragic accident and depended entirely on his elderly mother for everything, and then suddenly she was gone. The story of his struggles are very real and gut wrenching and I was pulled in to read more. Obviously others have too as a fundraiser was done to buy David a book scanner so he could “read” again. See if his image and story speak to you as well – read more on David here (he is in the image the top of the article also)

Jim-Mortram-interview-14

Final goodbye

Jim-Mortram-interview-18

Following Mother

Jim-Mortram-interview-20

Find Jim online and connect with him. Tell him is his images spoke to you as they did to me.

Twitter @JAMortram
Flickr for more photos by Jim
Small Town Inertia for more stories and photos
Small Town Inertia blog on Tumblr

Links to other interviews with Jim:

Out of the Blackness – United Nations of Photography
BBC News in Pictures

Read more about respecting the people you photograph here on dPS.

Trailer that we mention in the interview where Simon talks about wanting a camper van (RV) and his eyes light up, bringing me and Jim to tears.

Small Town Inertia : A Prison Without Walls : Teaser_Full from J A Mortram on Vimeo.

A PRISON WITHOUT WALLS

Si shares, in his own words, his ADHD, his experiences of life confined by parameters and self medication, and his endurance, fears and dreams whilst living on the fringe.

‘A prison without walls’ was one of a selection of short documentary films commissioned The New British and screened Friday, 27th of September, 2013 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.

The post Interview with Jim Mortram – Small Town Inertia by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Boat Portrait – Penobscot 16 Canoe from Old Town Canoes

10 Mar

Red Penobscot 16 canoe on the Cache la Poudre River in Fort Collins, February 2014

This red Penobscot 16 from Old Town Canoes is a new addition to my paddling fleet. I got it from in Cheyenne. Right now, it is my only tandem boat, although, the Badfish SUP can accommodate two people.

This is the first boat bought as a photography prop. Now, I need to produce 50-100 saleable pictures to recover the cost. Red canoe on a calm lake with snowy mountains in a background comes to my mind. Maybe, Grand Teton or Clacier National Park? Well, after some abstracts shot in a garage, the first field photo sessions took place in February 2014 on the Poudre River in Fort Collins. There is up to 0.5 mile of calm or slow water behind a diversion dam accessible from the Kingfisher Point Natural Area near Nix Farm. This river section can be paddled even at a minimal river flow including winter time if it is not frozen.

You are welcome to check new paddling pictures to my stock photography portfolio. There are available for immediate download and licensing as royalty free images.

I will try to photograph other boats from my paddling fleet: kayaks, canoes, SUPs (stand up paddleboard) and a packraft. I am really waiting for some green color …

Related posts:
Waterproof Duffels, Canoe Paddle and Hat …
Carbon Fiber and Wood Canoe Paddles in Royalty Free Pictures

paddling with a camera

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Dark City: Giant Mirrors Aim to Illuminate Town in Shadows

05 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

shadow city solar panels

A lovely little settlement in a lush valley of Norway sounds like a slice of paradise – except that the surrounding hills keep it out of sunlight for nearly half of the year. This incredible undertaking aims to change that, illuminating the town square even in the darkest parts of the year.

shadow town mirror project

A set of mirrors positioned high above Rjukan will rotate to reflect sunlight into the center of the settlement, which, thanks to being rather predictably bathed in light, will be available to residents and visitors who wish to walk through it. The system will be computer-controlled from the town hall.

shadow valley mirror array

If this sounds far-fetched or even futuristic, consider this: the idea was originally pitched exactly 100 years ago by a local developer in the area, but scrapped at the time due to cost. Its originator went ahead and constructed a cable car instead, to help people in the area climb high enough to get natural light in the winter.

shadow illuminate town square

Even today the installed array will run up a bill of nearly a million dollars and include over 500 square feet of mirrored surface (lighting up over 2000 square feet below). But for residents of this remote and shadowed settlement, who normally have to forsake the sun 5 months of the year, the effect is worth the price.

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Town’

Lost & Found: Underwater Ghost Town Resurfaces 30 Years Later

Town in a Tower: 14-Floor Highrise Houses Whole Alaskan Hamlet

From the Dead: Businessman Resurrecting Canadian Ghost Town

How To Source Locations For Portraits In Your Own Town

Gravesend: Fake Town for Simulating Crimes, Riots & Terrorism

Ghost Town: Shooting in Kolmanskop

Giving Up the Ghost: Residents of Toxic Town Won’t Leave

(top image via randylane; above image via claycountypara)

(image via: wikimedia commons)

(image via: wikimedia commons)

(image via: marada)

(image via: marada)

Interview with Jim Mortram – Small Town Inertia

More nuggets from Jim Mortram:

Boat Portrait – Penobscot 16 Canoe from Old Town Canoes

Dark City: Giant Mirrors Aim to Illuminate Town in Shadows

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Posts Tagged ‘Town’

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Drowned Towns: 10 Underwater Ghost Cities & Buildings

Underwater Town: Single Spire Marks Architectural Tomb

From the Dead: Businessman Resurrecting Canadian Ghost Town

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Dark City: Giant Mirrors Aim to Illuminate Town in Shadows

The Empty City of Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

Error of Omission: 50-Floor Skyscraper Lacking an Elevator

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Giving Up the Ghost: Residents of Toxic Town Won’t Leave

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Virtual Light: Facade Installation Casts Fake Illumination

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(top image via randylane; above image via claycountypara)

(image via: wikimedia commons)

(image via: wikimedia commons)

(image via: marada)

(image via: marada)

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The Empty City of Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

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More nuggets from Jim Mortram: