Project
where things happen..."
Personal work in its nature is often
very different to the professional
field and type of work that
photographers shoot in their day
to day roles within their chosen
industry and with Tim his passion
lays in shooting black and white
work that reflects life and its
sometimes strange reality, this
can be both on film and on
digital media.
Project Darwin
Death Valley was not a very
hospitable place for a small group
of men trying to make their way
to the San Joaquin Valley.
Camped in the Argus Range, they
were hungry and close to exhaustion
when it was discovered the only
working gun was a rifle with a
missing sight so killing any game
for food seemed out of the question.
An Indian guide said he could fix it
and took the gun vanishing into the
hills, he returned sometime later
and the rifle had a new sight of pure
silver. Some years later, one of the
original party, a Dr Darwin French,
returned to the Argus Range in 1874
to locate the mysterious
"Gun Sight Mine" and he discovered
silver and other mineral deposits and
mining operations began soon after
with the site, and later the town,
being given the name of 'Darwin'.
By 1877, Darwin had over 3500
people with water pumped down
from springs in the surrounding
mountains.There was a silver
smelter, a Wells Fargo office,
two general stores, a hotel,
several saloons and a brothel.
Because the site was isolated and
populated by miners with little to do
for recreation but drink, gunfights
were common, and the outbound
silver shipments were frequently
the targets of gangs of bandits
trying to steal the load.
One large wooden building
near the centre of town served as
a schoolhouse, a saloon, and a
brothel all at the same time!
1908 arrived and new lead and
copper strikes were made in the
area and people quickly began to
return to Darwin. By the 1920s,
the population was back up to
several thousand and appears to
have remained steady with the town
growing and flourishing deep within
Death Valley. In the early 1950's
mining was greatly expanded once
again in Darwin, a new mining camp
complete with housing facilities for
workers was built and for a period
in the late 1950s, Darwin was the
largest producer of lead in the
United States and flourishing
town in all respects.
Around the late 1960's whilst the
town was booming things seem
to have abruptly stopped, the
miners and their families all left,
many leaving their homes as
they stood on the day that they
all left town.
Almost as if they walked away,
house doors left open, airstreams
at the side on the drive and cars
parked neatly in front of old
picket fences.
Possessions remain still in place
with their once busy homes, tins
on the side in the kitchen, and
beds laying neatly made with
nothing more than a think layer of
sandy dust, baking in the sunlight
that shines through windows that
have their drapes still hanging.
There are no real records to why
everybody suddenly left Darwin
and indeed 'how' they all managed
to leave as many of their trucks
and cars remain, perfectly preserved
in the continuous relenting heat of
Death Valley, one of the hottest
known places on earth with ground
temperatures reaching such
soaringly high levels that some
area's have no life at all,
not even bacteria.
The next nearest life to Darwin is
over 100 miles away in any direction.
Abandoned Motel - Baker USA
During a recent shoot in Death Valley
in the USA I took a trip over to
Las Vegas, our trip took us through
the small town of Baker that sits just
on the edge of the state of Nevada
approximately 90 miles out of Vegas.
As you enter the town you can't help
noticing an old ruined Motel that has
been left totally abandoned by the
roadside as the sand blows across
the road and creates a very surreal
feel to the whole area with nothing
but desert to your right and a still
thriving town to your left.
The Royal Hawaiian Motel still sits
just as it did many years ago with
its reception still open if not in a
very sort state now with paperwork
and holiday brochures laying strewn
across the floor as if a tornado has
been swept through the inside of
the hotel. All the rooms are still
there and many have their doors
half open in a more menacing
than welcoming fashion.
After further investigation we saw
signs that the Motel had been
used over the years by drug
addicts and vigrants with a few
'guests' still refusing to check out.
Project Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island is located in the
San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles
offshore from San Francisco
and is often referred to as
"The Rock," the small island
was developed with facilities
for a lighthouse, a military
fortification, a military prison
(1868), and a federal prison
from 1933 until 1963. Beginning
in November 1969, the island
was occupied for more than 19
months by a group of Aboriginal
Peoples from San Francisco who
were part of a wave of Native
activism across the nation with
public protests through the 1970s.
In 1972 Alcatraz became a national
recreation area and received
designation as a National Historic
Landmark in 1986.
Today, the island's facilities are
managed by the National Park
Service as part of the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area.
It is home to the abandoned prison,
the site of the oldest operating
lighthouse on the west coast of
the United States.
Tim - "Alcatraz is probably best
described as one of those places
on earth that we all feel that we
know having been featured so
many time in films etc, however
n my view it really is a place that
you cant get the full story of until
you actually stand within its walls
and smell the scent of crumbling
decay that has torn through the
prison over the years. One of the
irst things that I noted personally
was just how close the island was
to the nearby city of San Francisco,
to the point where from within the
cells on the upper levels, that over
look San Fran Prier 39, you can
clearly hear the laughter of the
people in the bars and restaurants
there, something that I can only
imagine would have been a further
torture for any inmates who called
these cells home. The prison is in
quite a state of decay these days
however it is still very possible to
see the scars of time and events
that have occurred on the island
over the years such as the deep
crack in the floor of the main hall
as a result of grenades being used
during one mass riot on the island
by prisoners.
Its an emotional journey that you
take to walk through the prison and
through the years that have seen so
many moments of both human
triumph, despair and hope.
I hope that I managed to capture
just some of these in the
photography that I shot on the
island on a day that I will not
forget for a long time to come'.
Tim Wallace
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