Dorms in the Snow

I’ve been working on a photo essay book on Independence Mine since last summer. I decided to create it as a project that would allow me to focus on a specific subject and let me play with different styles of processing images at the same time. My goal was originally to make an ebook for friends and family, but it grew. It is now destined to be a print book that will be available to the public.

The focus of the book is a local gold mine that was the second largest gold producing mine in Alaska from the 1930-s to 1950’s. It was abandoned when the price of gold was fixed and the cost to extract it exceeded any profits. Some of the buildings are still habitable, but others have collapsed and nature has been allowed to start reclaiming it for her own.

I’ve been hesitant to finish the project, something just didn’t feel right.   This weekend, though,  I took an afternoon and my camera and a pair of snowshoes and hiked up to the mine to take some winter pictures. It was quiet and peaceful up there and a little cold at -3 F.  It wasn’t cold enough to keep people away, there were lots of people climbing the peaks and skiing or snowboarding down and families were sledding near the parking lot.   Fewer people were cross country skiing, but there were a few who passed me on my way up and back to the car, but otherwise, I had the whole complex to myself. The images I captured make me feel like I have the images I need to complete the book.