Prairie Remnant #4

Across the wide-open expanses of the Canadian prairies, hidden down seldom-traveled roads and in isolated locations, sit the remnants of the earlier settlers to these areas. There are old farm equipment and barns to be found, but my real quest is always for old abandoned homesteads. These old, empty, and dilapidated homes have always fascinated me, both for their current and changing state and also for what they once were and who lived in them.

When I look at them and their remoteness at the time, I can only think of the resilience of their former occupants. Many were often separated from family and suffered years of hardship and loneliness. There was the endless farming labor during the few warmer months this northern climate has to offer, all with a goal to be prepared to survive the long, cold, and merciless winter that would follow.

Some of these homesteads were simple with rectangular footprints and only a few rooms to house large families. Others were larger with two stories and with the luxury of sitting rooms and fine woodworking. But no matter what end of this spectrum these houses sat, today they are in the same predicament; long abandoned and left to the elements.

And year after year, those elements take their toll. Each return visit finds an old home in slightly worse condition or gone completely, often burnt or bulldozed by the landowner, never to be photographed again.

In creating this series of ultra-high-resolution images, I wanted to highlight a select group of characterful abandoned homesteads that remain surrounded only by the crop fields that would have been worked by the first occupants. And at the same time, I wanted to capture what might be the last photograph of them, at the extremely ultra-high-resolution that only these types of photos can deliver.

Photo Information: A very high-resolution photograph of an abandoned homestead located on the Canadian prairies.

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