Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Destroyed Blue Mountain Mall


First, I apologize for the formatting issue. Google needs to fix it or I need to learn more HTML.....

So after I shot and posted the previous post about the train, my friend Andrew told me about his favorite podcast: Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com with Josh & Chuck. I gave them a listen and at first wasn't sure if I wanted to keep listening, but after a couple episodes, I started to really like the show hosts and the topics they reviewed. I had probably listened to about 10 episodes when I came across their episode "What are Urban Explorers". Obviously, it's about urban exploration, which is exploring old buildings, underground tunnels, etcetera, that are generally off limits to the public. It’s Funny how things work out since I just did it a week earlier. Josh & Chuck got me thinking about what places in my city would be good candidates for exploration. Unfortunately, there aren't many places in Walla Walla to explore, but it suddenly occurred to me that I have been wondering what it was like inside the old Blue Mountain Mall site that has been just sitting there for so long. I had a day free, so I walked down to the mall and walked along the fence until I saw a “no trespassing” sign. I then decided that I didn’t want to be a true urban explorer if I were to get fined or arrested, so I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures from behind the fence. I came around a corner where the “go zone” ended where it became off-limits. Suddenly, I heard a voice yell, “HEY!” from a distance, but originating from inside the mall. He was a construction guy of some kind and seemed like he must be in charge. The sudden loud voice could only logically be followed by my own internal monologue largely consisting of scared profanity – then I had to decide whether to walk slowly away around the corner or to face the guy and claim I was doing nothing wrong…I was, after all, behind the fence! He had started from 100 or more yards away and was closing in now. My mind was now calculating and simulating every possible negative scenario when out of the silence came, “are you Brett?” I nearly laughed in relief. I briefly explained to the guy about what I was doing there and he instantly invited me in and basically told me to shoot to my heart’s content. “Phew” I thought. “This couldn’t have turned out better.” So I trudged through the rubble and continued to shoot for a while, excited to be in this disaster, and also relieved that I got to be here with authorization. There are a few shots here that are from similar angles, but I included them anyway because I couldn’t decide which ones I liked better.  Please click on the pictures to view the high resolution images.







































4 comments:

  1. Pretty cool pics.... I love 'stuff you should know'. Probably my favorite podcast right behind This American Life. What are you shooting these with? Any special filters?

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  2. Some folks would say the destruction of the mall is why Walla Walla's downtown is so vital. I was only there three months last fall. Was the downtown hurt when the mall was up and running? I ask because the town I live in is always trying to "revitalize" the downtown, but all that is there anymore is government buildings and lawyers.

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  3. Downtown was doing well in spite of the mall. But partly because the owner of the mall at that time was so overpriced and required 10 year renewals, that people were leaving and going downtown. I still think downtown would do just fine if we ever get a mall again. Our stores down there are unique and pull the tourists, where the mall would keep us from having to drive to the tri-cities to shop.

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  4. Pam - good answer
    Ben - I'm just shooting with a lowly Nikon D60, but as well as they turned out, they look even better when some sharpening and contrast are applied in photoshop, specifically the photomatix HDR plugin.

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