Dark Park

My hero Troy Paiva is still out every full moon to catch his vision of Lost America. Between releasing two books ("Lost America" and "Night Visions") he is kind enough to share his amazing work on his Flickr-site.




His nocturnal journeys have recently led him to one of my favourite subjects: An abandoned amusement park! I posted a selection of a similar project by another photographer recently, but when Mr. Paiva clicks his way through a lost and dark fun-park, it is sure to be something special.



I would love to invite Troy Paiva to come to Berlin to pay a full-moon visit to the spectacularly creepy "Spree Park", the former East-German amusement park which is left to rot since 2001!


Click pics to enlarge!

Joyland after Dark

As soon as an amusement park is closed or abandoned it is transformed into a surreal place with a fascinating and eerie aura.

Joyland in Wichita, Kansas closed its gates in 2004 after 54 years of operation. There are still attempts to re-open the park but it is currently dormant.

These are a couple of photos which were taken in the abandoned park in it´s current state. The photographer uses a similar "light painting"-technique as legendary Troy Paiva.
Long exposure and coloured gel lights create the superbly eerie atmosphere in these photos. (click on them for bigger fun!)







See more photos from this set and others from Josh.

Get Smart Fugitive - Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 2)

Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P.) was the last incarnation of the big amusement piers which once gave Santa Monica´s Venice Beach the title of "Coney Island of the Pacific".



The piers used to be a welcome open air background for the nearby Hollywood studios. There was hardly any silent movie star or slapstick-icon who wouldn´t use the rides and the lively atmosphere as a vehicle for their films at least once.



In the 1960s Disneyland was off limits for TV-productions so they went to P.O.P whenever a carnival was needed. By the mid 60s, the park, which started out as a serious competitor to Disneyland was already in serious decline. This might be the reason why two prominent series used the park as a spooky and empty stage-set for their respective episodes.



"Get Smart" used the park for the usual antics, but the final episode of "The Fugitive" used P.O.P. as a star attraction for the showdown between Richard Kimble and the one-armed man.
Aired in august of 1967, the episode "The Judgement" made TV-history as the most watched fiction program ever (a record that was only broken by the "Who shot J.R."-episode from "Dallas".)

Before the final showdown on the massive "Mahi Mahi" ride, there is an extensive chase that uses the bizarre and strange architecture to an almost surreal effect. Sadly even this media exposure didn´t help the struggling park. Only two months after the show aired, Pacific Ocean Park was shut down forever.

Here is the whole sequence in two parts:



Click here for P.O.P. pt 1. A place that kept my imagination despite I have never been there while it was in existence.
Part 3: In ruins

Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 1)

I can´t think of many places, which haunt me like Pacific Ocean Park. Of course, I have never been there. The year I was born, 10.000 kilometres away, Neptune closed his lair forever. The remains of P.O.P lay dormant for years. A playground for the salty waves, beach-bums, film/tv-crews and arsonists, turned into a surreal and dangerous netherworld on rotting stilts.

The photopraphs above were taken by Nick DeWolf in 1958.
P.O.P. part 2 - TV days and part 3 - In ruins

Ejector Air

Two weeks ago I finally found the time to visit Playland at the PNE in Vancouver. Well, Playland in itself was definitely not a destination I would have considered visiting if it wasn´t for the classic wooden coaster. The ride is simply called "Coaster" and celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

I am not one of those "coaster counters" who have to ride every kiddie-coaster in it´s ever repeating layouts, only to be photographed with a mouth-breathing grin, holding up a sign that says "500" some day.
Anyway, "Coaster" is a classic woody with some features you won´t find anywhere else so I just had to ride it.


In all honesty, Playland is a tragic dump which resembles a sad funfair on a forgotten parking lot, somewhere in a not-so-pretty-part of an otherwise beautiful city. So, it was actually good timing that we decided to pay a visit after our involuntary date with a Skunk the night before.

"Coaster" was built by Carl Phare in 1958 and currently holds the 20th place in the relatively respected Mitch Hawker´s Wooden Coaster Poll 2007 (out of 178 listed woodies). Among the top 20 it is the oldest continuously operating ride. All the others (except one) were built within the last 15 years.

Looking at it from the ground you would hardly think that this relatively harmless looking ride could offer anything worth to write home about. All you can see is the lifthill and the elevated turns, which are taken at fairly low speed.


If you are not a coaster dork you will not notice the unique rolling stock, which was specially built for this ride and no other ride on the planet uses the same design.

The trains consist of 8 single-bench cars with flanged wheels. Similar cars are enjoying a renaissance on newly built wooden coasters, since they track much better and are able to maneouver tighter and wilder turns than the usual two- or three row cars. As a simple, but genius device the open front car is equipped with a small oil canister that sprays oil onto the track as needed. This way, "Coaster" always runs as it should: Greased, lubed and wet!


Let´s hop onboard! Thanks to a very fast crew and a refreshingly easy loading procedure the two operating trains (three are available) guarantee a fast moving line.

If you have ridden any wooden coasters recently you might remember that you have to wear a tight fitting seatbelt and an obstrusive, testicle crushing, individual lapbar would pin you into your seat. Padded seat dividers would eliminate any physical contact with your riding partner.

"Coaster" has none of this. You sit down and pull down a simple bar that locks at "elbow height". The smaller you are, the more unsheltered you will feel, but hopefully you will have someone to cling on to.


"Well it can´t be that wild" I thought to myself after seeing this lack of security measures and headed for the last row.
"Dork", Coaster thought back.

Up the hill we went and I was throwing up my hands in giddy expectation. The train immediately headed down the fairly steep first drop and my hands shot back down to the bar as my ass flew out of my seat because it wasn´t quick enough to follow. That´s what we coaster-connoisseurs call "Airtime".


A second, steep and deep drop followed after a slow turnaround and by this time I knew that this ride earned its spot in that poll the hard way.
Two drops and another turnaround later the train passed an elevated brake run, which secures multiple trains running on the course. Luckily it was turned off and from this point on "Coaster" made sure to show us who was boss! The greased track, the warm weather and constant two-train operation had the trains flying over the well worn course.

With ever increasing speed the consecutive hills got lower and the turns get tighter. The train flies through fan-turns and a "reverse curve", constantly subjecting the rider to a rapid change in lateral and horizontal forces. Despite all the rattling and rolling, "Coaster" is remarkably well running. There is no dreaded "washboard effect" or "jackhammering", which so many other wooden rides suffer from.

The final third of the ride was, without a doubt, some of the most extreme and wildest ride I ever had. The negative forces, which usually occur as you fly over a parabolic hill, forced you to stand up in your car! Thighs met the metal bar and as soon as you forced yourself to sit down again, another burst of negative g-force would make you jump back up. No one would hold up their hands anymore. We were all hanging on for dear life and enjyoing every moment of it. THIS is how a coaster ride should be.


There is an especially evil hill towards the end of the ride which is taken at "ludicrous speed" and a quick succession of three extreme "ejecting" manouvers follow it.

Rolling back into the station, braked by skid-brakes which are still manually operated by a guy throwing himself against a giant lever, I beamed with exitement and bruises. They don´t build rides like this anymore. Modern woodies are designed and calculated by computers to offer you a safe, but simulated wild ride.

The USA still has many old, classic coasters but the sue-happy culture has forced the operators to get rid of all the things that make Vancouvers "Coaster" so wild and fun. Around ten rounds later, I was exhausted and bruised but I had bright, beaming smile on my face.

You don´t ride "Coaster"...it rides you! And it hurts so good.

New Clear Fun

One of the most bizarre amusement parks on the planet (besides the one in Chernobyl and "Funland" in Drumheller, Canada) has to be
Wunderland Kalkar (formerly: "Kernwasser Wunderland") in Kalkar, Germany.

It started its life as a breeder-reactor! Shortly before its completion it became one of the most expensive ruins when numerous protests, the Chernobyl disaster and political queeries made it difficult to justify its existence.

Enter Dutch businessman Hennie van der Most: He bought the whole ruin (minus the nuclear stuff) for just € 2.5 Million and converted into a hotel and fun-park.
His early plans of building a rollercoaster-dark-ride through the spooky, labyrinthine hallways of the reactor came to a halt when he was confronted with the insane building-requirements in Germany.


Poor Henny was close to call it a day, when he famously gave an interview in which he nagged about the German bureaucrazy. Apparantly placing some flower-pots on a 3 meter (10 ft.) thick concrete-slab required permission from various building-authorities!

Of course Henny was also aware that the ambience of his artificial paradise left something to be desired. Despite being beautifully located at the edge of the Rhine-River, the massive cryptic architecture of the plant overshadowed virtually any idea of family-fun.


With all-inclusive offerings (all-inclusive means: food and especially alcohol) he somehow managed to fill his bunker-hotel with groups of low-level business travellers. I remember reading great articles about the drinking binges that apparently happened there. It seems that people had to get drunk incredibly fast to withstand the feeling of opression and eeriness that "radiated" from the whole place.

The park is now in its 13th year of operation, catering to families who can´t afford a day at one of the upscale German and Dutch amusement-parks in the area. Looking at new pictures, it seems that they somehow manage to blend out the buildings by simply throwing lots of paint on them.
Besides, after a place has been used for a different purpose long enough, the "old ghosts" seem to vanish.

Still, the idea of putting an amusement-park into an atomic powerplant is awesome, even if the outcome is a bit underwhelming.

In case you didn´t notice already: Every first picture is from the park, contrasted with a still-shot from Terry Gilliam´s "Brazil" (Click to enlarge).

Expo 70: Theme-Park at the End of the Future

Astrorama


The best things about World Expositions is the aftermath! When the masses have gone home and the host-cities have to deal with the expensive, spectacular architecture that mostly serves no other purpose than being expensive and spectacular.

Expo-Architecture left out in the rain! These are the things the thousand dreams of Stellavista are made of.

Japanese Gas

Brussels, New York (twice), Montreal and Osaka are the Expos which interest me the most. While I guess that the early ones in Paris and London were certainly the most important, it´s the (post) space-age-spirit, the blatant gimmickry (which was heavily criticised) and the haunting leftovers of the big four that capture my interest. If you look at pictures and movies of the dense spectacle it is hardly imaginable that all this was only build for 6 months.

Canadian Pavillion

Pictures of Expo 70 in Osaka are some of my earliest childhood memories. Since my father had regular contact with Japanese scientists, I was exposed to many books and artefacts of japanese futurism at an early age. It was modern Japans first appearance on the international stage, proving that it had come a long way since Hiroshima and Nagasaki



Expo 70 really captured the spirit of the early post space-age. Concentrating on urban architecture, designs for modern life, robotics, and entertainment-culture that was a mixture of art and mass-media, both utilising the latest technological advances. Subsequent the Swiss and Canadian pavillions proved to be the most popular exhibits with their delicate kinetic sculptures and the introduction of the immersive IMAX-cinema.

Interior of American Pavillion

The architecture, at first glance all "showroom", "trade fair" and "theme park" was establishing japanese architects like Kikutake, Kurokawa and Tange (who was the chief architect for the project) on the world stage. Lightyears removed from the cliche of paper-walls and tatami mats, this multi-fractured architecture resonated heavily in europe.

Metabolist roof by Kenzo Tange

Larger-than-life-movies, receptive sculptures, synthetic music and hallucinogenic architecture. The planners of Expo 70 had realised that the moon was just a boring, far away rock, which ceased to capture our imagination one year after it was "conquered".
The central theme of the Expo was "progress and harmony for mankind". During its six month duration, it attracted 64 million people! Thats around 150.000 visitors per day (one peak day had reportedly 830.000 guests)! Disney must have been green with envy. People were lining up for hours to walk through the pavillions.



Only a few pavillions were "left out in the rain" after the gates closed in september 1970. One is the "Tower of the sun" which was also closed after the end of the Expo. When its state of deterioration became so bad that it was proposed to be torn down, many efforts were done to repair the tower and open it for a small number of visitors. Public interest was so strong that the openings were extended. Currently the tower is closed again, but will open in 2010 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Expo.

Tower of the Sun

Sadly most of the left over buildings were removed in 2004. The area is now a big green-zone, housing the Expo recreational park, sport facilities and parts of Expoland. The latter was the amusement park that was a part of Expo 70. It was kept open as a stand-alone attraction until a fatal rollercoaster accident killed one and injured 19 guests in May 2007. Investigations showed that the rides at Expoland were suffering from neglected maintenance. The park is currently closed for major renovations and is said to re-open sometime in the future...

These three aerial pictures taken in 1970, 1971 (one year after) and 1995 impressively show how radically the area was re-naturated. (Click to enlarge)



By the way: Expo 08 Saragoza opened last week. Did anybody hear anything about it?

Expo 70 was such a defining moment in recent japanese history, that it has become the subject for longtime scientific studies (pdf-doc) .

The massive interest to climb once more ontop of the "Tower of the sun" is a testament to the enormous power those 183 days still have on those who can remember the show.


While the actual tower fell in disrepair, prices for original memorabilia went through the roof, and artists were and are still inspired by this spectacle.

"Expora"

Superb japanese artist Kenji Yanobe, who was born in Osaka 1965, has taken photos of himself in an atomic survival suit in places like Chernobyl and on the grounds of Expo 70. He wanders through the debris like an alien astronaut in search of contaminated memories which are frozen in time.



Finally, some great visual reminders: