Abandoned

[Deleted]

Returning from a day trip, I stopped to shoot some photos at the old farmstead along I-84 near Baker, Oregon. I believe the place was abandoned about 50 years ago when the Interstate cut off its access.

I have been meaning to stop and take photos for years but somehow never got around to it until now. There are a lot of place like that I need to take the time to photograph.

Wayne

[nikonbob]

I would say that would be tine well spent, recording these old abandoned buildings for posterity. I think these would look really good in B&W.

Bob

[Randy]

At first it didn't look too bad for the wear, but then the close-ups told the story.

[casualcollector]

Eventually snow, the freeze-thaw cycle and perhaps a tremor will finish it... We would lose an old barn in the county just about every winter in Vermont

[Deleted]

Bob:

I think you are right about B&W. Funny, when I shot film I pretty much "thought" in black and white. But in digital I tend to think in color.

Wayne

[olroy2044]

Nice pics, Wayne. Old buildings are some of my favorite subjects. They deserve to be preserved in photos. So often we ignore what is right in front of our noses! On the same lines, I really enjoy your photos of the area around your workplace in Caldwell. Roy

[Deleted]

Thanks guys

Here are the shot as B&W. Seems like it has more of a Depression/Dust Bowl look. Maybe the owner got "upside down" on his load. Your thoughts?

[olroy2044]

Oh yeah! B&W for these captures the feeling of desolation much better IMHO. Roy

[nikonbob]

That is the beauty of digital, shoot colour film or digital, and convert later with the added bonus of trying various filters after the fact too. Nicely done conversions and as Roy says it does convey the desolation much better than colour does.

Bob

[PeterW]

Wayne,
On the whole I tend to agree that B&W suits this type of subject better than colour, and I wonder why this is. After all, we see everything in colour.

Maybe it's because B&W looks more stark than colour and thus emphasises the desolation of abandoned buildings, or maybe we've become conditioned to seing this type of picture by Dorothea Lange, Bill Brandt and other great photojournalists taken during the 1930s depression, and B&W is how we expect to see such subjects.

Perhaps we are so used these days to seeing photographs in colour that B&W is a trip back to the past, and the same goes for pictures of abandoned buildings.

Anyone got any more ideas about it?

Any idea of when these were built, Wayne, and what shift in the economy, and when, caused them to be abandoned? I know you said the area was by-passed by the Interstate in the 1950s, and I can see why that could take trade away from gas stations and diners. But a farm? It must be a heart-wrenching decision to walk out on a home and land into which you've put so much.

PeterW

[nikonbob]

PeterW

I think you are right on both counts about B&W for these sorts of subjects. Colour can take away from what you might want to emphasize, old and rundown in this case. It can distract you from really appreciating a composition that has more to do with shapes and mood. I guess that is sort of related to the idea to frame tightly to eliminate all but what is necessary to the subject. If it adds nothing relevant you eliminate it.

Bob

[Andrew]

Peter, abandoned places like those here often come about for a few different reasons; sometimes they are near or within towns that based their industry on mining and then the mine ran dry and so too the town and outlying setters left..many farm type building such as these here often became ruins because of persistent drought and the families couldn't afford to live there anymore (or in-fact survive), some others i know became ruins because the families made money, perhaps been there for generations and build a newer better place at a different location, rather than pouring money into a run down building....

some of these types of old buildings, quite close to where i live, once abandoned, i used to have fun walking through them or shooting rabbits in the paddocks..people are buying now and restoring, they are prepared to pay the cost for the old look not too mention its sometimes not possible to get permission to build a new dwelling in some of our hills area (they like to keep them open and zone against them being built up) but restoring an old building even if its run down to a pile of rubble is sometimes a viable alternative

i like the pictures in colour to give me a realistic and reportage view of what that area and buildings are like, i can see there has been some rain lately among the dry salt bush and mallee type shrubs with the young new green growth, it tells me what type of stone the building is made from (probably local stone), some indication of the type of soil in that country and the timber materials to some degree, the colour gives me more information about the shingles and painted door as well the rust on the thin fence posts

b/w does create the mood, it takes away my eye from such details as i mentioned before and lets me concentrate on the light, textures and shapes..this can be 'visually exciting' to the imagination (if that doesn't sound too 'corny' -to pinch an american phrase). conflicting or a muddle of colours that dont always compliment each other are removed and make the picture more pleasing..some images look good in either colour or b/w but its usually when the colours are complimenting each other, more often than not its an image with just a few colours, though at times a kaleidoscope of colours is very nice, sunsets, rainbows etc. colour pictures to be very appealing to me visully from an 'art' point of veiw are almost like finding those colours that compliment each other not unlike an interior decorator may match up colours in a home, Gene when he takes colour pictures i notice some of these aspects of simple or complimenting colours but they are not always available in shots we want and some of the different colours get in the way of nice picture often, whereas b/w removes the conflicting complexity of colour to be stimulating to the mind in other ways..sorry for waffling on, but that more or less how i see b/w V's colour

[John Parry]

Look like two different sets of pictures don't they? On the whole I tend to prefer the colour ones, but that's just me. As to why the buildings were abandoned, I would say it was probably subsidence, as there are long cracks in the stonework and mortar that are typical of it (I live in a coal mining area). As a guess, I'd say they didn't put enough work into the foundations...

Regards - John

[Andrew]

Subsidence/movement, it does look like it John...speaking from a builders perspective, the word foundations are an often misused term..in builders parlance (at least here, and abroad too afik from speaking to architects/builders overseas) the foundation is the dirt, but often when people say foundation they are really referring to the footing, which in a modern built home is the concrete and steel slab or strip footing etc. in old places like this often the footing (strip design) was made from choice large stones. many of our older suburb homes have footings made from big blocks of bluestone (which looks quite similar to what that building is made from incidentally). just a bit of trivia

need to watch your step coming out that door in the last picture..its a doozy hehe

[Deleted]

I have long believed that color can sometimes be a distraction in an image. But as I said, I've shot so much digital color of late my tastes have changed somewhat. Like John, I think I give the color shots a slight edge for my tastes. I think the color versions would be more powerful with the right light--light tends to be more important in color, I think.

The Baker Valley of Oregon, where these photos were shot, was settled relatively early in the history of the region--1850s or '60s I believe. Given the garage that matches the house, I suspect this place was built much later--maybe the early 1920s.

For the first 30 or 40 years the farm was right on the old U.S. Highway 30--a major east-west continental route. When it was replaced by Interstate 84, access to hundreds of place like this became more difficult. In addition, about that time a lot of relatively small farms and ranches (a few hundred acres each) were consolidated into larger operations. It simply wasn't possible to make a living any longer off the smaller spreads.

The house is constructed of what appears to be native lava rock. Someone went to considerable work as it looks like a lot of the stones were "squared up"--not an easy task because lava doesn't shape well (around here lava isn't considered a good building material). The one good attribute of lava would have been the house probably stayed pretty cool even on hot summer days--like an above-ground basement.