June 21, 2012

Act of Valor Anaconda, Montana 2012

There are still more images to go in the Measures of Anonymity collection from Denver but I’ve decided to pause that series for a while in favor of this one that I somehow ended up working on instead. This series is from the town of Anaconda, Montana. Anaconda was a mining town developed in 1883 around a smelter built to process the ore from the copper mines down the road in Butte. Originally it was to be named Copperopolis but perhaps strangely enough that name had already been taken, so it became Anaconda at the suggestion of the postmaster. The town thrived until the smelter was closed in 1980. Since then it has struggled economically to survive. The locals may object to the description, but it has a bit the proverbial “town that forgot to die” look about it. Besides being in color instead of black and white, this series is an interesting contrast to Measures of Anonymity. With a totally different look to the buildings and surroundings it presents another view of anonymity, solitude, and loneliness in an urban industrialized environment. Why the name Act of Valor? Because it perhaps takes an act of valor for a town and it’s people to try and stay viable when the economic rug is pulled out from under them–and also because Act of Valor was the name of the movie playing at the Washoe Theater the day I was there. (The title is on the marquee in the photo but it’s too small to read when published at this blog size.)]]>