Angela Carlsen

Early Works Sale

2010-11-19T12:15:00.002-04:00

All images are on 16x20 paper, hand-printed by yours truly in a darkroom. That's right, these prints are old school. They are all on sale for the low price of $50, which is 1/3 of the original $150 price. The first 20 sold come packaged with a mat. All are signed and numbered. Just click on "Early Works Sale" to see what's available.

Pretty Bird

2009-09-19T18:48:00.004-03:00

For the past half year or so I have been working on these birds which I shot at the Museum of Natural History, thanks to the help of Andrew Hebda. I researched the mythology and folklore surrounding each bird and compiled a sort of wallpaper for the background including images and symbols taken from the stories I read. I then framed them in antique oval frames.

This work is currently up at Argyle Fine Art until the 11th of October. Opening night is this Tuesday, September 22nd at 9pm.

Any feedback on these images would be greatly valued as this is very far out of my normal comfort range.

Miscou, Northern New Brunswick

2009-09-08T21:12:00.003-03:00

On vacation this year we decided to explore northern New Brunswick. We found this place. There is little to tell about it except that it was one of those places we thought wouldn't be that interesting based on what it looked like on the outside. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was full of discarded things which make for good exploring and picture taking.

McIntyre's Motel

2009-08-31T11:05:00.005-03:00

Well, it's been a busy summer with one show under my belt and another one coming up in a couple of weeks. (stay tuned)

I did manage to explore a bit on my vacation and came across this abandoned motel in New Brunswick. As usual it turns out the owners, Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre, passed away and it would be too expensive for the children to fix it up. It used to be a gas station as well and the cost of digging up the ground to make it safe is too great. Not to mention the damage that has happened to it over the last couple of years. It has only been closed for 5 years, so I was told by the gentleman who owns the campground across the street.

Roy Building

2009-07-23T10:32:00.003-03:00

A call came on Monday from a friend who was doing some work inside the old Dolly's location on Barrington Street. He thought I may be interested in taking a few shots, so off I went to investigate. I only had 25 minutes to shoot the place. It turns out it was a Shoppers Drug Mart as well sometime in its past. From what I was told, this building is one of the many slated for demolition. The developer who owns it would have to spend a ton to put in new elevators etc. before even starting the plans for the place. This leaves him thinking it would be cheaper to demolish this old Andrew Cobb building. And this is how things seem to go...

Sisters Of Charity Motherhouse

2009-07-12T23:16:00.006-03:00

The Sisiters Of Charity Motherhouse will have to remain a mystery for me. I was not able, with all of my bugging, to gain legal access to photograph the interior. I stop by now and then to see it's slow demolition. It pains me to know it will be gone and I will not have walked its halls.

Some History (Taken from Halifax History)
The Sisters of Charity have made their home in this massive building since 1959. The previous Motherhouse, opened in 1873, was destroyed by fire in 1951. In 2001 the Sisters of Charity announced that the Motherhouse no longer suited its needs. An initial concept to redevelop the Motherhouse building and surrounding lands (Village Park Place) fell through in 2006. "Deconstruction" of the current structure will take place this winter (2008-2009) and a large amount of equipment and infrastructure is either being re-used and incorporated into the new residence, donated to other groups or auctioned off.

Artist's Talk

2009-07-08T20:25:00.008-03:00

This Sunday, July 12th, at 2pm I will be giving an Artist's Talk at ViewPoint Gallery (1272 Barrington Street). This will be a fairly informal talk about my exhibition, NO VACANCY: A Disappearing History. Admission is free and so is the coffee.

See my last post for further details about the show or visit the news page on my website to read reviews about this work.

NO VACANCY: A Disappearing History

2009-07-02T11:59:00.003-03:00

With my exhibition, No Vacancy, opening this evening I thought I would share the reviews the show has been getting. Tonight should prove to be a lot of fun with KRASNOGORSK & The Moscow Country Club playing for the duration of the evening.

To read more about the show and discover some amazing websites and blogs see the links below.

Things Of Desire blogzine
Halifax History I recommend browsing this site as it is a very interesting look into our history.
View On Canadian Art
The Coast- Hot Summer Guide

Three weeks till show time!

2009-06-11T13:51:00.005-03:00

NO VACANCY: A Disappearing History

Photography by Angela Carlsen

No Vacancy is a documentary of five abandoned structures: the former Chronicle Herald building, Greenvale School, Dartmouth Marine Slips, St. Joseph's Church, and the old Halifax Infirmary.

Progress tries to tell us that instead of renovating buildings with historical relevance, it is better to demolish them in favor of newer, more pristine architecture. Although it is not always practical to save a building just because it is old, our history is still being lost with each structure torn down. Each of these sites has a great deal of historical significancewhich is communicated through the pairing of newspaper articles and written documentation with photographs of each place.

With this work, as with Angela's previous exhibition on abandoned houses, the goal is to create a venue for conversation that brings awareness to our neglect and procrastination when dealing with aged buildings and their loss as part of our living history.

WHAT:

No Vacancy: A Disappearing History

Featuring music by:

KRASNOGORSK & The Moscow Country Club

http://www.myspace.com/krasnogorsk

WHEN:

Exhibit Run: July 1- August 2, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 2, 2009. 6pm-9pm

Artist Talk: Sunday, July 12, 2pm.

WHERE:

ViewPoint Gallery,

1272 Barrington Street, Halifax, NS

B3J 1Y5 (902)420-0854

www.viewpointgallery.ca

For more information please email Angela at

angela.carlsen@gmail.com

1272 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 1Y5 902.420.0854 www.viewpointgallery.ca

More Spryfield fire

2009-05-10T18:14:00.005-03:00

Spryfield area fire

2009-05-07T13:44:00.004-03:00

There is a similarity between abandoned buildings/houses and the remains after a fire. A walk through the woods today proved to be just as exciting as a day of abandoned house hunting.

There is a different kind of sadness to a house destroyed by fire. Yes, it has been abandoned but forcibly so. These people lost everything and my heart goes out to them.

These cabinets were basically the only things left standing. It is devastating to think about what you lose when your house goes up in flames. It's not the house so much as all the sentimental things you own.

I have a lot more to blog about this with a ton more photos. I will be adding more in the next couple of days when I don't have to rush off to work.

Tibbetts Paint Factory

2009-04-27T08:53:00.005-03:00

Tibbett's Paints was established in 1947 and was Nova Scotia's only paint producer. It was a well known Nova Scotia company producing much of the commercial paint for Nova Scotia including road paint and ship paint for the Canadian Navy.Tibbett's Paints went bankrupt in the late eighties.

The speach bubble in this image says "THE ZOMBIES LIVE UP HERE".

Scotsburn skater house

2009-04-19T20:03:00.007-03:00

This house was brought to my attention by friends of mine, Adrianna and Joe. They had found it after a night a bunch of us spent at Stonehave cabins. The story I was told about this house is once it was left abandoned some skateboarders moved in, hence the ramp outside. After they left apparently sheep moved in.

The feed which was stored here, in combination with the articles left behind by the skaters made for a new experience for me when photographing this house.

Any time I find patterned wallpaper I'm happy. I love the blue wallpaper with the orange chair .

This was the second house we were caught in during the Easter weekend and happily not kicked out. A man pulled up on a tractor and once again I tried to get as many shots as I could before being asked to leave. He used to live in the house and was only checking to see what we were up to. As long as we weren't planning to vandalize the place we could stay for as long as we wanted.
House hunting season has begun!

Little Judique

2009-04-14T23:03:00.007-03:00

On our trip home this Easter, Martin and I came across a house buried in trees. The good thing about the spring is the lack of leaves make the usually more hidden houses more visible. The bad thing about the spring is the overall sogginess of everything.

Getting into the caved-in doorway and kitchen area was a bit tricky, but once past that the house was pretty easy to navigate. After a few minutes inside we hear a faint hello and to our disappointment it is actually a woman outside and not a ghost. The lady, Kate Beaton, had come up to the house to see if we were the surveyors she called. Turns out she recently bought the land and, despite her desire to restore the 100+ year old house, has resigned to the fact that it will have to be torn down. She would love to be able to save pieces of it and incorporate them into the new house planned for the same spot but I fear it is too damaged.

A fire had caused the upper floors to collapse to the main floor. What was left of the upstairs was far too unsafe to explore.

Thanks to Kate for allowing me to remain in the house for as long as I needed to get the shots I wanted.

Fortune Telling (?)

2009-04-06T17:43:00.010-03:00

If you are driving on the back road towards Truro and you see this sign, by all means go check it out. I have seen this sign more times than I can remember but until this weekend it was only that, a sign for fortune telling. On our way to some cabins near Scotsburn, myself and a couple of girlfriends decided on a whim to go see what was down the road to the fortune teller. It couldn't have turned out better.

This is what we see as we saw as we arrived near the end of the dirt road. It's hard to say whether we would have bothered going in if the house looked like any other rural house but there was no way we could have turned around after seeing this house.

We are greeted by a man, later introduced to us as Garfield, who opens the window by the open sign and to check us out. I have to admit I thought he was planning on doing a fortune telling, take-out window style. We are to wait outside until permitted to enter. I open the gate and two things hit me in the face; the heat from the wood stove, which has three huge pots of boiling water on it, and the smell of bone marrow cooking.

He asks us to sit down and we sit a moment in silence so he can "read our energy".

We agree to have a reading done. This is done for each of us individually. A box is given to us which we are told to place our hands on and think about the questions we want answered. Inside the box is three stacks of home made fortune cards fashioned out of different colored neon bristol board. The "cards" are well used. On them he has written things like "America's Most Wanted", "truck", Puppy", "T.V. talk show", "Rock band", plus many other random things as well as various country names and numbers. He starts the questioning with "what is your postal code?" and "are you with someone?" Renee ends up with a future which includes 7 trips to Niagara Falls, a RCMP officer lover, a need to switch banks, a career in horticulture, and going to Sobeys to smell flowers. She can relax now because he says "her storm inside is over".

Leah ends up with a future including a ranch where she owns horses, a love triangle, a love for Australia, 18 new pairs of shoes and boots, a visit from her mother, a trailer or a chalet (quite the difference), 18 trips to Arizona, lots of prosperity and so many other things we can't remember.

My future is so crazy I would have to stop typing right now in order to get started on my new life which includes forming a very successful all girls rock band of which I will be the singer. Also in my future is a younger man who will test my current relationship, a billionaire, a new house this year, and unbelievable promotion right away, a letter arriving soon which will clear everything up for me, three tv appearances on "America's Most Wanted" for solving cases, and an incredibly successful run in CURLING(!) which will get me many large trophies. Garfield made me take this photo when the card for curling came up in Renee's reading.

The visit was well worth the $20 we each paid him. There is no way any of our futures are accurate but I know I feel good giving Garfield my money. This is what he does and seemed happy in his set-up. Visiting him is entertainment in a way you have never experienced but you must have the right attitude and enjoy things out of the ordinary.

The Church of St. Phillips & St. Jacques (or Another one bites the dust, revisited)

2009-04-02T23:14:00.006-03:00

One afternoon in the summer of 2008, Martin and I were taking the long way home from visiting a friend in PEI. We drove past an amazing, but crumbling, church in Egmont Bay, The Curch of St. Phillips & St. Jacques. I spent the entire afternoon in this place after being let in by Simone Arsenault who is involved with the church. We were joined later by a former preist of that church, who's name I regret I've forgotten, who told us all about it's history and how it was up for sale at a mere price of $60,000. Just today I recieved a cd in the mail from Simone who had taken photographs of the church as it was being dimantled. It would seem no one was interested and/or couldn't afford to keep this beautiful building standing. I'm not sure if it is completely demolished at this time or not.

Summer shooting is getting closer

2009-04-01T20:40:00.010-03:00

New Brunswick. August, 2009.

I visited this place twice in the last couple of years and still can't figure it out. The ceilings are low and the counters, doorways......I know I'm tall but this place was made for really short people. It's four cabins in total with two of them connected in the middle, making one. I'm thinking they were cottages but not located anywhere nice. I'm almost standing on the road when I shot this. I thought I would post this in anticipation for my new season of abandoned house hunting. First road trip...Easter weekend. Stay tuned!

Someone always seems to hang up a coat. I run into this over and over.

This is the view from one cabin to the connected cabin. I think this is the living room looking down into the kitchen.
Cabin farthest to the left when facing them. There was a significant amount of decay between the first and second time I was there. It doesn't take long for a place to be completely rotted.

QEH part 2

2009-03-13T13:48:00.006-03:00

Take 2. First, I have to say thanks to Chuck Judson of Real Property for taking the time to escort me through QEH not once, but twice. This was a real rarity in what I do. So, thanks Chuck. Second, I am a complete sucker for parallel lines and it doesn't get much better than this.

Wood panelling still has a place in my heart, photographically speaking.

The auditorium was quite difficult to photograph. I have always wanted to get into an abandoned cinema. This is as close as I have come to that.

Thanks for all the comments people have left so far. It really does help to keep me going during these trying winter months. I am happy to announce that I was awarded a presentation grant for my work on abandoned buildings around the HRM. My exhibition will be in July, opening the night of the 2nd at 6pm, at ViewPoint Gallery. There will be music, food and wine. Mark it in your calendar. Happy Friday the 13th!

Queen Elizabeth High School

2009-03-04T21:48:00.006-04:00

So, as I said, there are more buildings coming and this is one. I drive by QEH all the time and I would be devistated if I missed getting inside before it gets torn down...which is the plan. It took me a couple of months to get a yes to go in but that's part of the whole process and I quite enjoy it; the satisfaction of finally getting the yes I am possitive I can get. This school and St. Patricks were joined into Citadel High two years ago. The city owns QEH at the moment and it is being used for police training until the hospital takes it over for parking I think. However, there are plans for a park on the same lot. Green is always good.

Stay tuned for more....I will be going in again. There are still plenty of areas I haven't even seen yet. QEH is quite a large building.

Bugs...bugs....bugs

2009-02-27T11:41:00.005-04:00

So.... Once again I am posting things that have nothing to do with abandoned spaces. However I assure you there are some coming. I am waiting on two buildings; one I am shooting on Monday so stay tuned!

I have been photographing these bugs I ordered off of eBay (honestly a person can get anything off the Internet). They are amazing and yes, dead. I have future plans for these photographs. Do you think you look like any of these creatures? I may need to photograph you.......

Perhaps you have a Halloween costume where you were "autumn" with leaves stuck all over it, for example.

Maybe you have a leather or PVC outfit, from head to toe....

Or a green track suit and helmet...why you would be wearing a helmet with your track suit I don't know...

Long pony tails with fuzzy elastics?

Or you are just plain scary!

Have a really hairy chest and a Salvador Dali moustache...

If you want to participate in my exotic bug look-a-like project send me a photo of yourself to angela.carlsen@gmail.com

Old but New

2009-02-06T13:39:00.003-04:00

It is winter, obviously, and I shoot abandoned spaces a lot less this time of year. I'm sure it would be better for my health to shoot more in the winter, seeing as the mold spores are probably less active. I thought I would share a couple of my favorite images from this past summer which I am particularly fond of.

This house is near Economy and I waited two years to finally get inside. Martin and I try to avoid going into places that say 'no trespassing' so we drove by this twice and didn't go in. I had dreams about this place. What a stupid rule we made for ourselves! Then, this summer, we drove by and it seemed as though the sign was gone. So, as if it was the first time we had come across the place, we went inside through the smashed out back window. Some places we go into feel like we could spend the whole day there and we would never get caught. This one wasn't one of those places. This room was the first room I saw and I had a really hard time leaving it to explore the rest of the house. It's still one of my favorite rooms ever.

On a trip to New Brunswick this summer, we came across a half abandoned military housing site. Part of the place was renovated with people living in the houses and the other looked like this. This day will always be remembered as the day we took Martin's wonderful mother with us to explore. She was the most adventurous out of all of us. She was picking everything up and opening every door and cupboard. It was so fun to see her curiosity and sense of adventure.

Yet another place that I waited a couple of years to get into. I'm not into breaking into places, so like a good citizen, I wait for someone else to do it and then go in where they made it possible to do so.

Cape Tourmentine is a place I would like to go live for a while. It is the town where the ferry used to leave for PEI before the bridge was put in. Cape Tourmentine is dying a slow death since they lost all the tourists going to the island. There isn't much left except for a restaurant and a small grocery store and corner store. A local told me they actually lost their liquor store. I plan to go back someday and talk to more people there.

Car Lots at night....after a snowstorm

2009-02-01T14:27:00.005-04:00

Okay, I know this is supposed to only be about abandoned spaces. But in some way a car lot at night is abandoned, especially during a snowstorm......

Greenvale School. Dartmouth, NS

2009-01-25T11:48:00.006-04:00

Greenvale School, in Dartmouth, is a place I had always wanted to see. There have been plans to redevelop it for a long time but nothing has started yet to my knowledge. Luckily, this is one of the few places which won't be torn down , but will have a new life as something else.
I really love this place. There are some buildings I shoot and don't feel as much of a connection to, although I am always happy and satisfied to have finally gained access. This school I love. Part of the whole process for me is finding out who will say yes and allow me to photograph a building. I love the detective work and trying to convince someone that it is a good idea to let me shoot in places which, honestly, sometimes aren't the safest places.

The old Masonic Hall

2009-01-23T10:45:00.009-04:00

The old Masonic Hall was introduced to me by a wonderful visual artist, Scott Saunders. The Mason's have been out for a while and there isn't much evidence of them left. I have to say that it is a beautiful building inside, as you can see, but its a bit weird seeing it since the Masons are so secretive.

This is the first image I took when I arrived. I was there to help Scott and had intended not to do much shooting myself. It took me a minute and a half before my first photo. It was too hard to resist.

The building is being renovated. Although I don't know what it will be used for I think artists lofts should be the choice. But I'm biased.

CHNS transmitter house

2009-01-18T23:55:00.002-04:00

One day last summer we came across this building at a dead end street in Bedford, NS. Of course it was an amazing site for us to discover. There was one window gone and when we climbed in it was obvious there had been a lot of people there before us. The building was wonderful and on a very large piece of land which would have been a great yard had my dream of buying it and turning it into my house had come true. It is has since been demolished.

Chance encounters

2009-01-16T10:13:00.002-04:00

Sometimes it amazes me what happens in life. Since deciding to devote my life to photography, I have read a lot about how bad the economy is and how it's a horrible time to try to get into the professional world of photography. It's good I am not the type of person who lets these things dictate my choices. I'm far too stubborn and determined for that.

Last night at work I met a gentleman who was looking for a particular photography magazine. We got to talking and he was the most positive person in the professional world of photography that I have met. He believes it is a really exciting time in photography and I choose to run with that. There's no stopping pushing forward until I hit a solid wall.....and maybe not even then.

St Joseph's Church

2009-01-15T13:30:00.017-04:00

Saint Josephs Church sits in the north end of Halifax. The bottom half of this place survived the Halifax explosion and the top was rebuilt, but it is all being torn down very soon. I am still learning about this church so I don't have a huge amount of information about it yet. I can say though, that it was a pleasure photographing it, even if it was only for about an hour. Thanks to Michael Christie and Renovators Resource for getting me into such a wonderful piece of history.

Last House

2009-01-07T19:38:00.007-04:00

Wow. A month can go by so quickly. The holidays forced me to take a break from the work that I am so passionate (some say obsessed) about. I did get one abandoned house shoot in while away in Cape Breton though. It's not often I find an almost completely collapsed house interesting. I like to be able to enter a structure and roam around the way the people who once lived there would have. However, this house showed me some interesting views from the outside looking in (the floor was pretty much gone throughout). I think it's safe to say this may be the last house of the season... even though I have said that before....

Composites

2008-11-28T12:25:00.007-04:00

For the past year or so I have been experimenting with composites. By taking details from buildings and combining them into new images I can create a kind of sci-fi world. Using satellite dishes adds circles to the image which can make them look closer to machines than buildings. I have not shown these anywhere but if I do they will be rather huge.

Inspired and depressed

2008-11-17T21:50:00.002-04:00

I have been tring for days to achieve a certain look from HDR and am falling short of what I want to see. I know it is possible because I have seen the amazing photographs on this website.
However, I have two images to share which I like the results of, even if it's not what I was aiming for.

Night Garage

2008-11-11T19:35:00.002-04:00

This weekend we did our usual drive looking for abandoned buildings. Just as we were ready to call it quits for the night we see this garage. It is getting dark but we notice a light coming from inside. We end up meeting and talking with the owner of the soon to be torn down building and amazingly they offer to go back inside and illuminate the ceiling during my exposure. This is the result of our spontaneous collaboration.

Robert Polidori

2008-11-06T00:22:00.004-04:00

Robert Polidori.
His photographs make me weak. Look at some of his work and see what you think.
www.houkgallery.com/polidori/polidori.html

Another one bites the dust

2008-11-03T20:56:00.006-04:00

Last night I found out that another building I had the pleasure to photograph is being demolished. One afternoon this past summer, Martin and I were taking the long way home from visiting a friend in PEI. We drove past an amazing, but crumbling, church in Egmont Bay. About 2 minutes after passing it I had to turn the car around and see if there was a way to get inside. We aproached a woman near the church, Simone, and she told us that if it was open we could go in. I tried the door and to my delight it opened. Simone and a former preist of that church told us all about it's history and how it was up for sale at a mere price of $60,000. In an email from Simone last night she informed me that everything, including the floorboards, was being sold off that afternoon in preparation for its demoltion. The only thing, she said, that hadn't sold yet was the organ which was an origianl by Casavant. Shame.
To see more images go to my website click here

Artist's retreat

2008-10-20T11:46:00.002-03:00

It has already been over a week since I was invited to go to Long Island for an artists retreat. Twelve people were brought over by boat and stayed on the island for 2 1/2 days. Everyone shared their work and talked about what inspires them. It was a wonderful way to meet people, have ideas challenged, become inspired. I wish there were more opportunities to brainstorm with other artistically minded people. It sure helps me to dig deeper and ask myself questions about what I do and what I feel I am unable to do. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful conversations and good food.

New abandoned house

2008-09-29T21:35:00.004-03:00

Just when I think that my abandoned house exploring is over for the season we find another one. This house had an amazing view and had a sadness to it. Martin and I often discuss the feeling of a place and make guesses about why it is empty. My conclusion is that the people who lived here passed away and there was no one to take the place over. The phonebook on the counter was dated 1994, however I think it was abandoned much more recently than that.

Panoramas

2008-09-15T15:46:00.003-03:00

Ahh.... Panoramas. This is one of my new favorite things to do. Through Photoshop it is easy to "photomerge" a number of images together to create a broader view. Make sure you use a tripod and keep your depth of field the same for each shot. It is best not to use a lens which is to wide so lines don't warp and will be able to connect easily. This image is made up of 9 images and was taken inside the Greenvale School in Dartmouth. This building will be torn down and made into lofts sometime in the future.

Pig-gela

2008-09-15T13:53:00.008-03:00

This image, titled Pig-gela, is a self portrait with pigs feet. One of the many things I am working on is combining people with animal parts, inspired by Dr. Seuss' book "I wish I had Duck Feet" It took a couple of weeks of searching through Photoshop tutorials to find something that would work for blending the feet into my legs convincingly. I think I've achieved the look however, I'm going to have a hard time doing it again.

Note to self: Write things down.

Life After People

2008-09-15T13:28:00.002-03:00

I love this film. Because of the nature of my photography I find the idea of this fascinating. I have discovered through photographing abandoned houses that nature is much more powerful than we care to think. It is only kept at bay by humans and as soon as we are gone the earth takes it's land back. In less time than the span of humans existence on earth all evidence of us is gone.