Tag Archives: window

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite Ghost Town, Amargosa Valley and Mountains

February 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The ruins of the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada stand above the Amargosa Valley, with the Amargosa Range and Death Valley National Park in the distance.

While there can be some moments of beautiful and colorful sunrise light at the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada – and I was there for it – this early morning light from a short time later probably gives a more true sense of what the place tends to look like during the winter months. (Even here, the high, thin clouds soften the scene a bit – it is often quite cloudless.)

From what I understand, Rhyolite sprang up in the very early 1900s after gold was discovered nearby. During the short life of the town, measured in no more than decades, it was reportedly the second largest city in southern Nevada. It featured banks (two of which are seen in this photograph), a railroad station (abandoned but still present and located behind my camera position), newspapers, an impressive school house, and thousands of residents. It was all largely abandoned in the first half of the 1900s and most of the buildings are gone, though traces of them and the old roads they lined can still be found here and there. A few large buildings in the center of the town still more or less stand, in varying states of decay. The building on the right was the Cook Bank. Another bank was located where the white walls are a bit further in the distance. The town school house is the furthest building. The whole town overlooked the Amargosa Valley, where the current boundary of Death Valley National Park lies. Beyond that, an inside the park, are the Amargosa Range and in the far distance the ridge of the Panamint Range and the summit of 11,000+’ Telescope Peak.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Simplicity

January 18, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small appliance store front window with many colorful signs, San Jose, California.

This is another in the “walked out my front door and made photographs” series, being a store front that is within a half mile or so of my home. I’m a bit of a fan of photographing the fronts of these small businesses that appear to be anything but chain operations. Each one is its own unique universe and, I assume, reflects the owner’s personality in many ways including the cumulative effect of focusing on one small area of the world for many decades. I often wonder what it must be like to live in a world of vacuum cleaners for more than five decades – and I don’t mean to imply anything by that question beyond a serious interest in how our primary interests end up influencing how we experience and see the world.

The visual quality of these places also interests me. I can initially simply be overwhelmed by the details that must have accumulated over time – the many brightly colored signs, a few things hung on walls, displays of specialized equipment and materials with brand names I barely recognize. Yet there is a very carefully created order in all of this. It is fun – for me at least! – to spend some time looking at these scenes and starting to pick out the small details that I might not initially notice. (Of course, that is easier with a big print than it is with this little jpg!)

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Crumbling Ghost Town Ruins, Evening

December 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light in the crumbling ruins of an old mining ghost town near Death Valley National Park, California.

Rhyolite is a Nevada ghost town not far from Death Valley National Park. (The bit of distant ridge seen through the “windows” of the structure is probably inside the park.) The story of Rhyolite is interesting, and not all that different from what happened in many other “boom and bust” towns in the desert and in other areas of the west. For a short time, thousands showed up to work in extractive industries, otherwise known as mines, and there was apparently an actual bustling city here. The old railroad station, ruins of bank buildings and a school, and the size of the area occupied by the town are evidence of this. But, as is virtually always the case, the boom couldn’t last and the departed inhabitant left some years ago, leaving the town to the elements.

This is a different sort of Rhyolite photograph than I might usually share. Most are made either at night or in the golden hour period near dawn. This one was made in the evening, when the direct sun was gone. (At this time of year the sun sets beyond a nearby ridge, so the direct light is gone well before sunset.) The soft, bluish evening light creates a different effect and, for me, makes the old buildings a bit more mysterious. Here I shot from outside one of the crumbling structures that is now filled with rocks. I don’t usually say much about what a photograph might mean (and often my photographs are simply what they are) but this one evoked for me some thoughts about the nature of time and the transitory effect of the human presence on the landscape. Not only has this building – which at one time must have had a floor, a roof, a nicely finished interior, and perhaps even comfortable furniture and perhaps art on the walls – decayed to the point where the line between its structure and the rocks of the natural landscape becomes obscure, but even the attempts to declare ones presence by means of graffiti have begun to crumble.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Schoolhouse Ruins, Rhyolite

October 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sunlight shine through the window frames of the ruins of the abandoned schoolhouse in the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada, near Death Valley National Park.

The ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada is located just east of the boundary of Death Valley National Park, along the edge of the Amargosa Valley, and not far from Beatty, Nevada, which itself is close to the Nevada Test Site. Put all of that together and you have the potential for a bit of a spooky place!

Rhyolite was a short-lived mining town in the early 1900s, when it apparently was home to thousands of people who streamed to this forsaken landscape to find silver. The town was eventually abandoned – although some mining still takes place in the area – but a good number of the larger buildings are still there, in various states of decay. An old train station that looks pretty fancy is fenced off to keep us out, but you can walk (respectfully and carefully!) among many other old structures including the old school house that is the subject of this photograph.

I’ve been out here a number of times and dawn is my favorite time to photograph here. The light makes it to many of the old ruins very shortly after actual sunrise, and there is a moment of often beautiful light at this time. From Rhyolite the hills inside Death Valley National Park are visible to the west and above the nearer hills you can see Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park at over 11,000′ elevation.

The school (like a few of the other ruins) looks like it must have been a very large and robust structure. Even though the roof and the second floor are gone, almost all of the exterior walls still stand and don’t show any immediate signs of incipient collapse. On this morning I made a series of photographs from just inside one of the “doorways” of the school with a wide-angle lens. I selected and shared a few of them back in 2009, but I recently went back to my original raw files and decided to try this one in black and white.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts when this page is viewed on the web. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: window

Rhyolite Ghost Town, Amargosa Valley and Mountains

Like this:

Simplicity

Like this:

Crumbling Ghost Town Ruins, Evening

Like this:

Schoolhouse Ruins, Rhyolite

Like this:

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.