Pioneer Elevator, Saskatchewan, Canada. 2004 © John Queenan 2004

A few years ago I was in rural Saskatchewan for the first time, shooting an interview for a TV documentary. As usual I’d brought my stills camera along as well, although on the first day I realized I only had one roll of  film in my bag, and that was a fast grainy 1600 iso. The resultant images were grainy indeed but I like them, I just wish I had had more time there, and more film. This is an amazing landscape almost lunar in places, and the first time I had seen real tumbleweed.

Car, Saskatchewan. 2004. © John Queenan 2004

What struck me was the desolation of an area that had once been a thriving farming community full of villages, grain elevators, churches and schools. Over the last 20 years due to a number of circumstances that converged to create a mood of gloom and despair ; farmers gave up the unequal struggle against the growing globalization of the food industry and massive crop productions which served to obliterate the small farms that had been around for generations.

Abandoned Farm Buildings, Saskatchewan. 2004 © John Queenan 2004

Immigrants who had toiled against the unforgiving climate and conditions in order to carve out a life on the prairies only to be defeated in the end by big business. So called ‘progress’ has created ghost towns across a once populated landscape of rural communities, leaving nothing behind but the once proud elevators looming above the stark landscape as a reminder. couldn’t help remind me of the small towns in Europe clustered around the towering churches. Osage Elevator, Saskatchewan. 2004. © John Queenan 2004

The documentary was a sad one, a story on Alzheimers that had afflicted the father of a farming family, the landscape didn’t help, the journalist I was working with was overcome with tears during an interview with his wife.

I hope to find the time to return and shoot more.

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