I still haven't found a date when the Albuquerque Railyards were built. I do know that in 1977, the Santa Fe Rail shut down the machines, relocated its employees and locked up the property.
When it was built (I'm thinking that it might have been completed around 1922), there were 3 large buildings made of metal frame and glass shell. It occupied 27 acres and totaled 350,000 square feet. The buildings were modeled after a Ford plant.
The city now owns the property and I think the city's movie studios are in charge of renting out the space for movie and photo shoots. These images are from a Flickr photo shoot I participated in last weekend.
There are lots of areas where the workers could wash up in. There were usually 200-300 people on one shift and there were 3 shifts a day. That's a lot of grease and people-washing that took place daily!
Before the city started managing this property, a lot of homeless men 'lived' here. A lot of kids came in and made their mark, so spray art and graffiti are abundant. Oh, but the pigeons reigned supreme! Feathers and bird poop everywhere-not as much as there was before they rented out for movie shoots. Watch the latest version of "The Terminator" and know that many scenes were shot here.
These are the really serious hand washing stations! Are you getting a sense of scale from this image?
These are shadows from broken windows on a pool of water.
Step back a little further and you see the broken windows that created those shadows. But, look closely as you are still looking at that pool of water on the floor!
Now you can see the two previous images in this shot. This is the 'big perspective'! This is a pretty awesome space, these buildings. You can still feel the energy from the people who worked here for so many years. Really good, positive energy as they all had to look out for each other due to the hazards of the job.
I have more images from this photo shoot on the Flickr Photostream button in the left margin of this blog. More will be posted over time.
Every week, a group of us from around the world post our shadow shots over at Hey Harriet. Entertain your muse and be amused by stopping by to see what others have posted!
You can also view all Shadow Shot postings I've done by scrolling all the way down and on the left side you will see an archive of labels for my posts. Look for Shadow Shot Sunday and click on that link for an "all you can view" buffet of shadow shots!
17 comments:
Sad, but interesting shadow shots, Paula! Always enjoy the history -- makes the photos all the more meaningful!
Have a great weekend!
Sylvia
Interestingly, I see the grand scheme and ths smallest detail, as you have suggested. The small sink looms large in that frame, yet we see the massive hand washing stations, without people to give us context, they don't have the same visual significance. The window is a great focal point, the art of the old design is reinforced by the reflection. A lovely take on the past!
Merry Christmas in the truly artistic New Mexico!
I love the look of these wonderful old buildings, something eerily beautiful about the graffiti and broken glass, the decay of the ages...cool shots!
I so adore decay.
You've captured it beautifully, Paula!
Holy Spirit, come,
Fill this font again with your
deep-cleansing waters.
My Shadows
This is a great series of shadows, and I especially like the reflections!
Hmmm. Creative destruction . . .
or just destruction.
Hard to tell in real time.
You might be interested in this, also.
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/ghosts_of_shopping_past/10gosp.php
Cheers!
JzB
The last photo tricked me, I thought there's two windows in there hehehe. Great shots.
My first time participating
Have a great ShadowShotSunday
and
Happy holidays!
BLOGitse
I love these photos!!! I'm so envious! I'd love to go exploring and taking photos there! It's good to know that the building is still used. And for film locations? How exciting! There's an old builing here in Brisbane called the Powerhouse (which was a power station yonks ago) & it was abandoned for ages and homeless took refuge there & kids left their graffiti marks there also. The council took it over & turned it into a large arts venue and thankfully left much of it as it was. The graffiti still remains & bits and pieces of the original machinery is located throughout. It's nice when the history of an old building can be maintained. I'll pop over to look at your Flickr photos a little later on. I hope you and your family have a magical Christmas!
how interesting to be able to take part in a photo shoot here... very good photos
Sad to see such wonderful buildings lying derelict - but super shadow shots!
lots of cool shadows.
My SSS can be found here. Merry Christmas!
That is a really interesting post with great photos to accompany it. I love the run down nature of the place-I can see why they use it for film shoots.
The lighting rig shot posed more problems in trying to avoid the eagle eyes of the usher! I only wanted a few shots of the interior but I saw her telling someone else off! It is a bit of a blurry shot though because it was low light.
What a space! Love the pictures - and shadows - and especially all of that light pouring into those windows! AMazing!
great job... love your Railyards shots ♥
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