This is my entry for #monomad challenge.
I have already posted some colour images on a post at c/Photography Lovers yesterday but the monochrome ones are to me more relevant as the age of the factory and the architecture of it lends itself to monochrome.Plus monochrome is my first love!
Sometimes you have to break some rules for a killer image.
My friend and I often search for derelict and abandoned buildings to photograph. There is something about these old forgotten places that fascinate us. They are relics of another age and are full of ghosts of the people that worked and sometimes died there. Unfortunately some of them are hard to get into and "forbidden zones".
This abandoned cement factory has been shut since 1930.It must have been a noisy, dangerous and dirty place to work full of huge machines and caustic materials.
Since then it has been for years a historic site protected from demolition and a place people could explore and enjoy. It has been used for movies and music videos -you can see why.Families used to picnic in it's grounds and I visited it sometimes as a kid with my family.There were markets and concerts in the site.
But the ravages of time and nature took their toll and gradually it fell into disrepair and started literally to fall to bits. Still underneath the amazing architecture still remains.
It became too dangerous to set foot inside so the city closed it off to visitors and erected fences around it.But this did not deter everyone and as you can see many people have left their mark over the years since.
A few years ago the city surrounded the area with more serious higher fences and put up signs forbidding entry and promising heavy fines and trespass notices from police for anyone trying to enter.It is patrolled by security guards regularly.The city can't demolish it because of it's historic significance as one of the first and the largest cement factories in New Zealand-built in the late 1800's.But they can't afford to restore it to it's former glory or to be safe enough to enter..It's in limbo -like so many amazing historic sites.
Before entering the factory buildings we had to spend some days working out at what time the security guards did their rounds.We waited for a rainy day so there were hardly any people in the area as it is down a winding dirt road on the city outskirts..We agreed one of us would enter the site and the other would stay outside the fence on guard to warn of any potential problems or come to help the other if that was necessary..Then we would swap places.We agreed on only half an hour each to explore the buildings and take photos.
I won't say how we got in but we didn't damage anything and the only damage would have been to ourselves.We had a first aid kit for any injuries that we may have got getting over the fence or inside.
At this stage I have to say I am in no way encouraging this sort of activity.I realise the factory site is closed because of the risk of injury from falling masonry, heavy metal,deep holes and other potential injuries.The ground is uneven and strewn with masonry,glass,bottles,metal,dirty pools,all sorts of fallen stone and machinery.We were prepared for the worst and were prepared to pay the fines and be trespassed because we thought the opportunity for great images was going to be worth it.Plus we wanted to create a historic record of this place before it eventually comes crashing down forever.If one of us had been seriously injured by falling debris then that was a cost we were also prepared to pay-although we calculated the risk of that was pretty small as we were not there long.We could have been wrong.
Was all this worth it?
I'll let you monochrome lovers decide.If there is enough interest I will post some more images of this amazing and surreal place.
You can just see my friend in this last image dwarfed by one of the buildings.We were switching roles from lookout to photographer.
Thanks for reading this story!
Great location and photos! I'd love to be able to shoot in a place like this.
They are hard 2 find nowadays most ha e been demolished it takes some research to hunt them down but amazing when u find one
Congratulations @artxmike! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 3000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!