Today’s photo is a little bit older, but has a story. When I saw a photo a few minutes ago taken be a friend on G+,this photo came up to my mind.
You know, I live south of the Ruhr area, that part of Europe, where the industrial revolution started centuries ago when a shepherd boy found coal by incident. In the middle of the last century, the mining and the steel industries went worse. Many plants and mines had to be closed for economic reasons. It was much cheaper to by coal overseas and ship them elsewhere, then digging it from the ground here in Germany. The same with steel plants.
The photo below is taken in a former steel plant. The enormous walls are the walls of the coal and ore bunkers. That plant is open to the public as a park. It’s a paradise for photographers. Every now and then I already published photos taken there (i.e. here).
When you’re in my area and want to visit that park, drop me a line.
I developed this photo in bw from the beginning, because it has, in my opinion, a distinct mood for monochrome. For this challenge I reworked it by using Tonality Pro.
This is my contribution to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness.
Take care!
(as always: click on the photo to see them in a bigger size)
MyBlog - solaner 
Oh i can see it would be a photographer’s haven! Wonderful photo 🙂
Thanks, Julie!
Black and white photography also goes better with the theme and the period of coal mining!
I agree, Fatima. But that wasn’t my idea.
I felt the tristesse in this situation (in German we also use that french word – what is a possible English word? Even my dictionary didn’t help):
No green gras for the boys to play on it, but only very thick walls bordering their place to roam and to play. Black and gray concrete instead of green and colorful nature. But, an abandoned steel plant instead of a plant loaded with heavy work and busy workers, although this plant displaced the nature once it was built.
This Kafkaesque situation made me feel, colors would destroy the image and bw would be able to preserve it.
I’ve never seen the word ‘tristesse’ used in the English language. I suppose that ‘sadness’, ‘gloominess’ or ‘forlorness’ would be used instead, but I understand perfectly the feeling you are trying to convey.
Your guess is quite good. But, ‘Tristesse’ is a bit more than just a feeling ‘sadness’ or so.
It’s also bearing the definition of gray-ness inside like a landscape on a foggy, cold November day. Nothing is clearly visible, everything is indefinite and vague. Or, an old a quarter with small, ugly, bad cared houses of poor unemployed people. This street would also be descibed as ‘trist’
I think I get the picture. Thank you for your kind explanation. 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
You took great monochrome picture! Love the perspective of the image.
Thanks, Indah!