The first place I thought to look when the broken assignment was announced was the abandoned Blue Heron Paper Mill that sits on the banks of the Willamette River. There is so much history tied to this place that for a century supported much of the region.
There are layers upon layers of structures, some more recent, some less so, and some buried beneath what is left at the site today. It is truly a broken place that was once very alive, and it's sad to think of the people out of jobs when the plant finally closed its doors.
There were more than a few objects that would have fit the bill for the broken assignment, but this little bit of staircase stopping abruptly over what I can only imagine used to be a building felt the most broken of all.
There is some hope for this mill site, and in time the look of this place will definitely be transformed. Whether it is the actions of people or the force of the river that changes it remains to be seen, but for the time being it remains a skeleton of what used to be a thriving place.
On Taking Assignments
I frequently listen to the On Taking Pictures (OTP) podcast, which I highly recommend to anyone looking for good conversation about creativity, especially as it related to photography. In January 2014 the hosts, Bill Wadman and Jeffery Saddoris, began a new segment of weekly assignments that they gave to listeners. Results of the assignments are posted on the OTP Google Plus group. I decided that I would commit myself to the assignments for a year without interruption, and that I would complete each one before the next assignment was announced on the show each Tuesday morning. My 'On Taking Assignments' blog posts are the culmination of my year-long focus on these assignments.