FORGOTTEN NO LONGER
On his travels through Saskatchewan, the abandoned farmhouses caught photographer Chris Attrell’s eye. Thirteen years ago, Attrell was living in Banff, Alta., and would visit Saskatchewan in the summers. What he saw caught his interest, so he began to take photographs of the buildings and post them online. Soon, he found himself going beyond that, taking photos of ghost towns and abandoned places. It turned into his first online project, www.ghosttownscanada.ca, which he ran for 10 years.
Photographer Chris Attrell sought the history behind the abandoned places he was photographing so he could learn how the people who once occupied them lived.
“To me, it’s just absolutely fascinating,” he says.
Now, he’s working on a new Facebook-based project, Forgotten Saskatchewan, that combines the photography with his interest in history.
“The photographic part is the artistic side of me, so I kind of combined them both together,” he says.
The self-described night owl is a professional photographer by day and often goes out at night to take pictures. He blocks off three days a week to take photos.
One of the subjects that “excites” him the most is the Anderson house, south of Shaunavon, the town he now calls home. He’s read about the history of the family and found a photo of the house taken in the 1910s.
“It’s just stunning to see the 100-year-old picture of the house you’ve just been in. You’re reading their entire family history, and it all took place in those walls,” he says.
There’s also the shot he didn’t take nine years ago of an elderly man, about 85 years old, standing in front of a collapsed house. The man told Attrell about where he used to live and play.
“I was too shy to get a picture of him with the house,” he says.
There’s value in preserving this kind of knowledge for future generations, according to Ashleigh Androsoff, an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
“I think there’s value in acknowledging the labour, the blood, sweat and tears that went into trying to make this land productive. I think there’s also value in acknowledging that it was very hard for farming families to be successful in this particular landscape and I think the abandoned houses are a testament to that difficulty,” Androsoff said.
The reasons the homes were abandoned have varied over the years, Androsoff noted.
At the turn of the century, homesteaders who couldn’t achieve the requirements set out by the federal government would leave their properties. In the 20th century, the tough conditions during the Depression years forced some off the land to seek opportunities elsewhere. Later on, urbanization moved people away from farms.
Attrell plans to continue with the project well into the future, including a trip across the province to take photos of subjects exclusively at night. He also wants to write articles to bring the stories “alive,” he said.
“Saskatchewan’s huge. There’s no shortage of places and stories.”
The photographic part is the artistic side of me, so I kind of combined them both together.