Choking the Color at Carrie

Elliott's friend, Marty, brought his grandson, Riley, along to join us at Carrie Furnace in PA on Sunday. I hadn't been here for five years and was a little doubtful about how much of the site would now be accessible. Due to the machinery's decline and neglect there was bound to be a lot more disintegration and decay, meaning more areas would be off limits. But regardless, I would be spending the day with the main man, and that alone would make me ecstatically happy. I decided that my photos on this visit would be black and white, certainly not because that would reflect my mood, which if it did, would mean all my photos would instead have lots of little glittering gold and silver sparkles popping out, unicorns prancing among the ruins and rainbows shooting above the tall furnace chimneys. I was going to process in black and white simply because I never do it. I always choose color, and then often play with those hues and tints, but this time I'd push myself to be more sombre and dramatic. Unfortunately I had little time to spend on processing, so may one day come back to these images and reprocess them, (yeah, right!). But my Number One Blog Fan, Myra, insists on my posts being somewhat timely, and I must oblige. So these were quickly run through while at work, one minute using an adjustment brush to pull out a detail in the shadows of a photo, and the next, drawing a poker tournament design on a t-shirt proof. I'm good at multitasking.

Everyone was masked up as we arrived, and everyone kept their masks on while in close proximity to others, although we had plenty of opportunities to take breathers and pull them off since the place was so vast with not so many people walking about. It was a cloudy overcast day, the sun failing to make an appearance despite constant attempts to shine through the clouds. But we were pleased, a day without heat and extreme shadows or blinding rays of sun made it the perfect setting for me to produce my black and white images. Elliott marched right in front of me as I was framing a shot, to get up close to the furnace stacks and even closer to a guy setting up his camera on a tripod. I was going to wait until he moved out of the way but then thought it would make an excellent photo just as it was. And it did.

Carrie Furnace was shut down in 1978 and in 2006 the two remaining furnaces became a National Historical Landmark. It had produced over a thousand tonnes of iron per day at its peak and had obviously also produced a lot of pollution, contaminating the surrounding area. Clean up began in the 1990's and continues today. Eventually the land will be used for residential and commercial purposes along with some light industry. A museum will also be built containing the 2 furnaces still standing. Rivers of Steel are intent on the preservation of the the steel industry heritage, saving the structures where they can, as well as relics and historical memories. They provide tours of Carrie, and other saved landmarks, as well as encouraging workshops and art installations.

Because I was planning on monochromatic photos I focused more on textures, shapes and lines. We all kept relatively close together, Elliott spending a lot of his time talking to Riley, explaining camera procedures and photo compositions. Marty and I chipped in at times but Elliott was like a full on instructor, he was awesome. And Riley appeared to be lapping up all the tuition. Considering he is only 14 years old, he was great company and acted as if we much older pals were his peers. I was impressed with his maturity. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of him, or Marty, and regret that, but they're coming with us to photograph some vintage trucks in the near future, so I plan on capturing a more human perspective in my photos on that trip.

Marty showed us a photo he'd taken, looking through a hole in the fence at the furnace base. I used a different hole and had a go. The base of the furnace looked like a huge imposing space ship. I almost expected it to begin humming in low tones, with a hatch opening out, and a spindly, gangling alien figure reaching towards us.

This old piano part caught our eye and I decided to climb up onto the rusted rotors to get a better shot. These materials are used in the workshop that River of Steel holds, where people can come in and cast art objects. I'd love to have a go at that but it's too far to come. So I was perched up on top of the rotors, admittedly a little wobbly, when a member of staff came over, and a little gruffly, asked me to get down. Which I did. And then I started chatting with him, asking questions, and generally getting on famously, my little misdemeanor almost forgotten. But Elliott and Marty ribbed me afterwards for 'ass kissing' on a huge scale, causing both of them to walk away in mock disgust and we laughed. But I'd made a friend, and later when he approached us to remind us that our time was nearly up, he came to me and spoke so kindly it was as if we'd known each other for years, rather than less than an hour. So yup, I'll 'ass kiss' every time, if it gets me what I want. There's been a few close arrest scenarios in the past when I've been urbexing, and I've done the same thing, and got myself and friends off the hook.

We finished up near the railroad area where the raw materials and fuel had once been delivered. The locker rooms had disintegrated further since my last visit, capsizing on themselves, but the old steam engine stood solidly and defiantly, resisting the attacks of decay. For some reason Marty and Elliott decided that a rusty old lamp above the locker room was a fascinating and captivating subject to focus their huge cameras and lenses on. Not me, I was more interested in photographing them, hastily snapping a shot while resisting the urge to laugh out loud.

Marty took this photo of an old iron girder that resembled a face, a dragon face in my opinion. Elliott had told Marty about pareidolia, seeing faces in inanimate objects. I'd been aware of this, as are most people, but never knew that it had an actual name. Marty was actively searching for these faces as he walked around, so I'm hoping he'll share his images with us later.

My only color photo of the day was this tiny outcrop of plants, perched up on the side of the furnace building, surrounded by rusty, dark metal and wood, a burst of vibrant color held within a 'shadow box', so vivid it was as though they were proclaiming, "We're alive!" while surrounded by drab decay.

It had been a great afternoon with wonderful people, the time racing past so fast that I felt I'd only been there for an hour, not three. Yet I was a little disappointed that yet more areas were no longer accessible since my last trip. We were really limited to how close we could get to the furnaces and the chimney areas. No longer could we walk around and between them, and I get it. It's got to be extremely difficult to keep huge rusting machinery safe enough for the general public to roam around, and so I'm grateful for my past trips where we'd had a lot more freedom. I likely won't return to Carrie, especially as it's going to become more of a tourist spot and museum. It's great that the area is being preserved, but it's no longer this urbexing girl's ideal photo safari. So farewell old friend, stand strong and resilient, and keep those tourists pouring in, reminding them of the steel industry that once reigned in these parts.