Robert Burley, Demolition of Buildings 65 & 69 Kodak Park, Rochester
Robert Burley (installation photomontage at CONTACT)
Speaking of photographic processes fading into obscurity, there's a rather poignant exhibition by Canadian artist Robert Burley showing right now as part of the CONTACT Photo Festival in Toronto.
From the press release:
"Toronto artist Robert Burley is currently documenting the fate of chemical photography, recording the abandonment and demolition of various Kodak plants. The films, papers and processing chemicals these factories produced will soon be obsolete, although Burley himself is still physically printing images from negatives, albeit ones he edits digitally. The most notable of Burley's large, highly detailed colour photographs shows the implosion of buildings 65 and 69 at Kodak Park in Rochester, N.Y., where a crowd that includes people who worked in the plant busily snap pictures of its demise on their digital cameras. Whatever sacrifices it may demand, technology is irresistible. A giant mural of this hugely ironic image - created thanks to digital technology, of course - now greets anyone who enters the courtyard of Toronto's Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art on Queen Street West."
Here are some images from the Burley series Disappearance of Darkness, which documents the final year of the Kodak Canada facility in Toronto. This facility, which was made up of 18 buildings on a 5 hectare site, had a one hundred year history of producing photographic films and papers. It was sold in 2006 and demolished in the summer of 2007.
The Coating Facility, Building Thirteen, 2006
Employee Meeting - West Parking Lot, Last Day of Manufacturing Operations, 2005
Darkroom #2, Building Three, 2005
Main Entrance, View from Photography Drive of Buildings Seven and Nine, 2006
The Processing , Building Ten, Kodak Canada, 2006
Demolition #2, Kodak Canada, 2007
Entrance to Coating Facility, Kodak Canada, Toronto 2005
Traffic Corridor, Building Three, 2006
Darkroom #16, Building Three, 2006
Stairwell in Drying Rooms, Kodak Canada, Toronto 2005
The Hopper, Kodak Canada, Toronto 2005
Sigh.
Read more about CONTACT, which also includes exhibitions by Raymonde April, Luc Delahaye, Nan Goldin, Adi Nes, Martin Parr, Chi Peng, Thomas Ruff, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Bert Teunissen.
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This is interesting. I went to film school in Toronto, we were actually one of the last years shooting film, so we had a tour of this facility and regularly went there to pick up stock...
Kinda strange to see these images years later...
thanx fpr sharing!
- Nicolas
Thanks for sharing these photos. I worked at Kodak Canada for 12 years from 1975-1987. It was my first job after graduating from the University of Waterloo. I have only fond memories of my time there and working with people such as Ek Heidebrecht, Don Dixon, Ken Grey, Len Hill (Arnie), Barry Whittall, Gary Jenkins, Ron Atkinson, Pam Lester, Glenn Willing, John Farrell, Dick Moore, Sue Manovich, Romi Bongers, Dany Toniutti, Dave Compton, Brad Hunter, Roger McLean, Kirk McCallum, Mike Leech, John Primeau and many others. It was a great time everyone. Thanks!