NikonGear'23

Images => Life, the Universe & Everything Else => Topic started by: Martin Kellermann on September 04, 2017, 21:11:38

Title: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Martin Kellermann on September 04, 2017, 21:11:38
Sometimes photography takes us to queer places. Some time ago my friend who is a water scientist and I visited an abandoned sewage works of the Ekhuruleni (previously Kempton Park) city. It was a fascinating pace, not all that safe, but full of photography opportunities. I was happy to have an expert with me who could explain what all the structures are used for. The graffiti artists were there long before us  :) :) :). Martin
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Peter Connan on September 06, 2017, 18:39:06
Martin, you are a braver man than me. I drive past this facility regularly, but have not been able to scrape up the courage to examine it on foot.

Do you live close by?
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Martin Kellermann on September 06, 2017, 19:19:50
Hi Peter,
Nice to meet a fellow SA NG member in cyber space. I used to live in Pretoria, I am now located in George. I would also not venture there on my own - I was with a friend that knew the facility in his professional capacity. Always the better option to be with company in these run-down places.
Kind regards, Martin
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Peter Connan on September 07, 2017, 05:30:21
Thanks for the reply Martin. Give me a shout if you ever come this way again?
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: elsa hoffmann on September 07, 2017, 06:44:03
Martin - your sewerage works looks a tad different to our sewerage works in Cape Town... We dont have such lovely art. cool shots
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Jakov Minić on September 07, 2017, 08:55:15
Always nice to see graffiti, thanks.
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Akira on September 07, 2017, 13:39:21
Colorful but a bit spooky.  I wonder where the skeleton of a crummy (?) came from.  Did it accidentally fall into the sewage and drowned (when the sewage was still in operation) or starved (after it had been abandoned)?
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Martin Kellermann on September 09, 2017, 09:54:09
Akira,
The place is a bit spooky. All the closed structures and vessels had a gap blown by dynamite so that when you fall in you could get out. Some of these openings you can see in the images. The animal, I don't know what it was, probably a goat or a sheep, was most likely slaughtered, cooked and eaten by the vagrants that moved in soon after the facility was shut down. When we visited there was no sign of vagrants  - fortunately. Martin
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Akira on September 09, 2017, 12:44:55
Martin, thanks for the details of the place.  Blowing the structures by dynamite seems to be the appropriate way to keep the abandoned sewage from becoming a dangerously secret place.
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Peter Connan on September 12, 2017, 20:48:00
Not sure how long ago the photos were taken, but an open field close by is used regularly nowadays for religious ceremonies.

I am wondering whether the (goat?) was slaughtered in some form of ceremony? Having said that though, I don't know too much about it.
Title: Re: Kempton Park sewage works
Post by: Erik Lund on September 13, 2017, 13:23:06
First shot stand out for me, the iron reinforcement blending with the grass in the foreground is striking!