For my final assignment in the photo story module I had several initial ideas, one being a contrast between students in Leeds and those who are just originally from here and another exploring middle class guilt. These ideas were ultimately scrapped in favour of the story I ended up creating.
I decided to follow an urban exploration theme where I could find abandoned buildings in and around Leeds or Halifax and attempt to tell a story about the chosen building. The abandonment of these buildings, I thought, would fit under ‘The Austerity Issue’ as austerity and hard times could lead to the state of the places I visited. But rather than just telling a story of urban decay I wanted to find a building or site with a more interesting past, instead of a simple office block. The urban exploration forum 28dayslater.co.uk was a main source of research when I had decided to follow a theme which involves urban exploration. The site allows you to view amateur photography of various people who have discovered somewhere. It allowed me to see how others portrayed their own stories through photographic means. Websites like this are plentiful but a lot are out of date so the details cannot always be trusted. I also visited various similar blogs from all parts of the world, these were used for a sort of inspiration more than to find a prospective site to photograph. One common theme amongst photographers when I researched ideas was that it seemed an amateur pursuit, as I failed to find any particularly well known photographers who partake. Though famous images kept popping up, in particular photographs of Chernobyl after it’s evacuation.
The site I ultimately chose to photograph for the sake of this assignment was an old mink farm in the hills above Halifax. The site was long abandoned but the long greenhouse like sheds which housed the cages retained a very eerie atmosphere. The decay which had befallen the old farm varied from shed to shed. But what was consistent was that the sheds still all contained the old cages used to contain the minks. I wanted to get some photographs of some sort of animal evidence but due to the site being long abandoned the minks are either long gone, or long dead. This meant I had to photograph something else to show that animals had once lived here. I was also interested in what happened to the farm, whether it was simply abandoned, relocated or sabotaged by activists as a passing dog walker mentioned to me. The photographs I took, I believe, convey the atmosphere that this place had. It was eerie, with the sheds all lined up, either filled with discarded cages or simply overgrown. Overall I think these images communicate the atmosphere of the farm as well as telling a story about the possible escape of these animals.
The signs, that being signifiers and signified working together, in my images vary, below are some of my images which best show the various signs and signifiers.
In this image one of the shed is seen, but it is in a skeletal state with just its bare structure being visible. The sign here is indexical as it needs no prior cultural knowledge to be understood. The bare metalwork implies decay and abandonment. The cages that are seen on the floor in and around the shed are another signifier, as we think of animals. These two signs can be combined to asses that this area once contained many small animals. The burn marks on the structure are another arbitrary signifier as we can easily deduct that the building has suffered some fire damage.
This image contains signifiers which are a lot more open to interpretation. Although there is no sheds or cages the barbed wire as a signifier connotates security. The barbed wire is an example of a symbol, as it represents a specific cultural idea .The framing, which seems to pile the coils of wire on top of each other, shows the sheer amount, signifying that this place was jealously guarded. I think the contrast between the wire and the plant life with visual interpretation can signify the eerie atmosphere of the location.
This image shows signs similar to the last. The cages are again covered in plant life, connoting the same ideas as before. But this image contains cages which are still racked up as if they are still in use on one side whilst across the walkway the cages are scattered. These two sets of cages combined as signifiers to signify that the site could have been left in order, with cages left racked up, conveying that the scattered cages and burnt sheds are the work of vandals and not those who once worked here.
Here the obvious signifier is the cage. It is the image with the best visual signifier showing that animals were once kept here. We can delve further into this sign by looking at the state of the cage, obviously the years of disuse have rendered it battered and useless, but the size of the cage signifies the condition the minks were kept in. The cage’s position, discarded in the grass, could be seen as a representation of the site as a whole, just abandoned to decay in the Yorkshire countryside.
This image again shows similar signs to the aforementioned. But here we can see the unlocked latches on the cages. This signifies that they have been undone by hand. The undamaged latches are a sign that the general wear and tear of being exposed to the elements isn’t what has released the hundreds of minks that were once housed here. The open ended shed beyond the open cages again signifies freedom as the dark roof gives way to the sunny, open expanse further on.
Sam Denham 