Junkyard Requiem
The Pearsonville you see on this site no longer exists. In early 2011 hundreds of vehicles were crushed and recycled. The remaining cars were packed tightly into the northwest corner of the yard and surrounded by a strong, high fence. The rest of this immense site is just empty dirt, almost as if this epic junkyard was never there.
I’m not surprised it happened. Over thirty years of exploring abandoned places and junkyards I’ve seen hundreds of locations disappear. Pearsonville is no different. But the inevitability in knowing that I’d eventually see it disappear didn’t make it any easier. For me Pearsonville was special.
Between 2008 and 2010 I spent an unprecedented twenty-nine nights inside the fence, shooting by the light of the full moon. Many of them were spent leading more than 40 people on night photography workshops. I shot thousands of minutes-long time exposures, ending up with just under 500 finished images (about 85 favorites currently showing in the 3 galleries on this site.) In all those visits I never ran out of things to shoot. I still feel like I left many images on the table. Lots of unfinished business . . .
I combed every inch of the place and discovered magic everywhere; from its smallest details, to its endless vistas and insanely surreal skies. I forged a tremendous connection to the place and I will miss it.
This massive gallery of images has become a requiem for a place that no longer exists.
For more on the history of Pearsonville, visit the Pearsonville 2008 set.
For more on “The Pearsonville Experience”, visit the Pearsonville 2009 set.
