This Hard Place

 This Hard Place.

 For the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to travel out to Boston's Harbor Islands, most notably Georges Island, Peddocks Island and Lovells Island.  Georges Island and Fort Warren have been transformed into the hub of the Harbor Islands State Park and thus has been rendered a tourist destination as opposed to the once idyllic getaway it could be just a few years ago. Peddocks, my favorite, has suffered a worse fate as  most of what once was Fort Andrews has either been torn down or boarded up. The magical home to my first photographs, my World War Wonderland has been snuffed out.  So I was left with Lovells Island as my location of choice this summer.  Lovells is a hardscrabble strip of land facing out towards the outermost harbor and the Brewster Islands. It sits across from Fort Warren along what was once the main shipping channel entering Boston. It's shape has been severely reconfigured by erosion since WWII though. As a testament to this a large communications bunker lies in a massive heap on the beach having been ripped from its original hillside location by the savage winter surf.  Unlike the other islands I mentioned nothing really has been done to despoil this rugged place which on a blazing hot summer day can bring to mind some desolate Southwestern Pacific island in 1944...if one is so inclined.

I had not been to Lovells or the concrete remains of Fort Standish for about five summers.  Any time I traveled to the Harbor Islands I would opt to go to Peddocks as even in its diminished state there were certain challenges yet to be conquered. (See The Summer Campaign blog below)  In fact this year my first visit was to Peddocks where it became abundantly clear that the challenges were pretty much exhausted.

The part of Fort Standish that I find most compelling is known as Battery Terrill or Battery Terror as I prefer to call it. It was originally a triple six inch rifle battery and it managed to survive in service until 1943 when its sadly antiquated weaponry was removed and replaced with more modern armaments.  Now it is wildly overgrown and crumbling like so many of my locations,,,only more so.  Its great appeal is that it is a wonderful spot to occupy for hours as one can watch the sadly beautiful light change from lurid green to golden yellow and pink with shades of blue as the afternoon progresses.  It is a subtle but spectacular shift in tones to witness particularly in late August.  The light at that time is most like that which used to inhabit Peddocks Island in its luminescent heyday.  The other very notable quality the rooms of the emplacement have is a remarkable sound quality with an extraordinary echo developing the deeper one ventures into the bowels of the structure.  On certain days the sound of jet engines at Logan Airport is amplified in such a way as to sound like the rumble of an angry volcano constantly on the verge of erupting.

 I was fortunate to get number of "picture perfect" days for my travels to the islands this summer, but three of the days suddenly ended with thunderstorms, one of which was particularly nasty. On the day the photo above was shot  as the violent storm approached the vibrant colors that illuminated the bunkers became dark with shadows and drained of coloration. I had attempted to shoot the image above another time, but it was too bright even in the seemingly darkened casemate to get a clear projection. While the thunder rumbled ever closer I worked feverishly like a camouflaged Dr. Frankenstein to set up the shot. I knew I couldn't rush things but I soon had to get back to the boat which involved an arduous hump across the island. This included crossing a significantly large enough wide open area that it seemed like it could called Lightning Alley under such circumstances. The oncoming shitstorm became an ideal time not only to get the right lighting effect for the shot, but also it created the  perfect setting to create an image of a war criminal about to be executed.

 

The Lost Year and The Commando Raid

It's been quite a while since I've done a post obviously.  Without going into long and tedious detail about the circumstances that knocked me out of action, I will just say that it was year that began with my camera getting smashed and went on to feature far too much involvement with my aging and highly dysfunctional family.  'Nuff said.

One photo "mission" (as I call my shoots) that may have been a turning point, at least in my own outlook, was a visit to the former West Reservation of Fort Greene and Battery 109.  It is located in what is now known as Fishermen's State Park in Narragansett Rhode Island.  When I had gone there in December 2012 I found that the bunker had been fenced off and that a good deal of the vegetation that had enshrouded it was being removed.  I was still able to gain entry though because I happened to notice one of the gates was left unlocked and there was no one around on frigid grey afternoon.  In January I returned with a sense that this might be the last time I would have personal unrestricted access to the unrestored battery. 

Battery 109 is a Series 100 bunker built during World War II to house two 16 inch guns - the largest guns in the U.S. inventory that were similar to those mounted on the top of the line battleships in service at the time.  These bunkers are massive earth covered concrete structures some 600 feet long and at least 35 feet high.  Battery 109 was never armed as by the time it was completed the threat from a coastal engagementwith large surface ships had long passed.  Now it stands vacant in the middle of a summertime tourist encampment surrounded by Winnebagos and trailers.  God knows what "They" are going to with it now that it has caught the interest of the authorities.

When I arrived at the park I discovered that not only had the bunker remained fenced off, but that there was a state work crew with a park ranger in tow doing something or other with huge cutting wheel in the rear of Gun Emplacement 2.  Though one can usually gain entry to these locations without too much trouble it is a good idea to exercise discretion when attempting to do so.  Battery109 is posted as "State Property - No Tresspassing!" after all.  So, with that in mind,  I was forced to climb the battery and traverse the length of it to see if somehow I could get in through Emplacement 1 at the far end.  I was able to slip behind the fencing from the top of the bunker in proceed down the slope and over the concrete retaining wall at Gun Emplacement 1.  From that end of the long corridor that connects the gun positions I was able to see that the crew was not actually working inside the emplacement, but were outside at the entrance. 

This is when one of those strange epiphanies or realizations that have been so much a part of this work came to me.  Over the course of time my own appearance while photographing had transformed.  I had gradually adopted more and more genuine, contemporary Army gear including a full camo uniform mostly out of these items' genuine usefulness for doing this kind of work.  (The rugged ACUs - Army Combat Uniforms - are really good for crawling around the sometimes inhospitable terrain around the various abandoned structures and the "Camelbak" water supply system that fits into one's backpack is a godsend!)

It occurred to me that as I had become outfitted in "full battle rattle" with uniform, black watch cap, tactical flashlight and three day assault pack, etc.,  that I could sneak, commando-like, down the dark corridor and into the power and ventilation rooms I was interested in shooting located in the center of the battery.   That particular moment of personal involvement, of stepping out from behind the camera and becoming like a character in my own own story at that particular time, led me to take the ultimate step towards full immersion in this project.  I would become a character who is the embodiment of these kinds of places, of the years of lies and violence that gave birth to what we have become today.

The mission that I later named "Operation Landlord" was an exhilarating success.  The next time out I would introduce "Mr. Skin" to the world.

Stay tuned, cosmoliners...

Welcome!

Welcome to the first post on my new edsel addams speaks blog.  In the coming weeks I'm looking forward to sharing some descriptions and background stories about my photographic work on the project, Cosmoliner. 

I believe this blog will add a compelling dimension to my photographs by helping to shed some light on  the circumstances surrounding their creation.  Over the past ten years there have been many strangely ironic occurrences and fascinating adventures while exploring and photographing the remaining Coast Artillery Corps fortifications - those ignominious artifacts of the last World War and our not-so-distant violent past.
  
I hope you will enjoy hearing about these experiences and check back frequently as well as visiting my website, donfeeney.com.