Photographic Projects - Kodak No. 9

We have some great people in the bwfp flickr group and they certainly came up trumps when asked about their photography projects. The plan is to feature the some of projects that were put forward.

The first one is called Kodak No.9 and the projects creator Mike N Dawn’s Photography has given us kind permission to share it here.

This what they had to say about it -

“It was definitely an eye opener. My wife worked there back in 2003 through to 2005, shortly before it started to pack up and close. In 2005, Kodak announced they would be closing the doors to Kodak Heights for good, as it was outsourcing the work over seas, and on the other side of the country. I believe it was a cost cutting measure, but sadly it also meant the loss of more then 800 jobs.

In the late 70s, Kodak Heights employed nearly 5000 employees, and was one of the main chemical manufacturing plants in North America. Nahanni Whiskey, and he can attest to this, was one of the many that would drop off his Kodachrome films for processing at this very building. The Kodak #9 building was the office, and film processing facility, where as the outlying buildings, now nothing more then piles of gravel today, were the main chemical plants.

They were also one of the main suppliers of B&W Photo paper, both Kodak, and even ILFORD branded paper. (My wife worked in the B&W Photo paper packing centre).

It was quite the site to see late at night, the lights blazing, trucks entering and exiting at all hours. From flatbeds to tankers and other various delivery trucks.

The day the plant closed, it was like the place had turned into a ghost town, for it was pretty much a town in its hayday! The lights were out, and the roads were and land was forever silenced. Like a blot in the city, where light once shone like a photographic beacon, it is now an eerie place to look at. The remaining #9 building, scheduled for future development and restored, is now a destination for firebugs (as it has been torched repeatedly), vandals, local graffiti artists, and Urban Archeological photographers, myself included. Like a skeleton sentinel, standing and watching over, silently, the lands that once were bustling. Now looking like a graveyard… overgrown with weeds, and pitted with holes, like open tombs, from the excavation of the old chemical tanks. The guard booth is now a burned and collapsed wreck.

This adventure into the life of what once was a photographic giant, was both insightful and eye opening, and sadly depressing.

I do have one more set of images left to do here. I need to reunite my Kodak Duaflex IV with the land that gave birth to it.”

To see more of the project then follow this link to Mike N Dawn’s page on flickr

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