Mary Alice Hobbs

Brigham City Museum Gallery

When Utah photographer Ben Kuhns wanted to gain access to the roof of an abandoned cement factory with no outside staircase - it had been removed - he was not deterred and climbed some metal support girders holding up a large silo nearby where he accessed a walkway.

On another occasion, Kuhns and fellow photographer Sam Scholes couldn’t top a hill on a dirt road in their minivan en route to a remote ghost town in the desert west of Wendover. When they tried to drive around the hill, their vehicle became stuck in soft dirt. With sticks, bare hands and a spare tire jack, they were able to free the car and return to the road.

These are only two of the many adventures both men have experienced photographing deserted sites and neglected buildings locally and nationally. They have documented their explorations in about 50 color images for the exhibit “Forgotten Places” which will hang in the Brigham City Museum-Gallery September 26 through November 11. Admission is free.

The museum is located at 24 North 300 West. Regular hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. For further information, please call (435) 723-6769.

Both Kuhns and Scholes have favorite locations to shoot, and the sites receive multiple visits, specifically a lime plant, a rail line and a mine. Unstable floors, poor air quality and collapsed ceilings are all hazards the photographers encounter as they wander forsaken places.

After returning to the Delle Chemical Lime plant numerous times during the day, Kuhns decided to visit at night. With no natural light to make photographs, he was left with a blank canvas of industrial decay. Armed with a few small camera flashes against the darkness, the photographer was able to compose and sculpt his subjects with his own light. Kuhns selected “Above the Lime Pile” to show in the exhibit.

Scholes also photographed the lime plant, specifically the front steps and doorway of the office building. Since it was also a night shot, he lit the inside with a red road flare and fired some off-camera flashes outside to light up the stairs. Scholes says, “I love how light can transform an ordinary scene into something dramatic and interesting. Red is a powerful color in any photograph and that is especially true in this image, which I’ve titled ‘Seeing Red.’” The lime plant is located in Utah’s west desert.

During a Christmas visit to his parents in Seattle, Washington, Kuhns was asked to accompany his father to an abandoned rail line in the mountains north of the city. This forgotten rail grade, located near the top of Steven’s Pass, was the site of the Wellington Disaster, the most fatal avalanche in United States’ history. All that remains today are the old concrete snow sheds constructed after the avalanche to protect against future fatalities on the railroad. This trip gave Kuhns an opportunity to connect with his father as well as capture the image “Reclamation.”

What holds Scholes’ interest in a forsaken coal mine close to Sunnyside, Utah, is what he finds inside. One of his images in the exhibit takes the viewer inside the workers’ locker room where they changed their clothes before and after laboring in the mine. The baskets in the photo were used by workers to store their clothes and other belongings. Scholes says the quality of light that filters through the large windows and the intensity of the colors, notably the green, are almost magical. The photographer named this piece “Sunnyside Locker Room.”

Scholes “School’s Out” is a remembrance of an old Intermountain Indian School building in Brigham City. The school was originally an army hospital which served wounded soldiers of World War II. It was remodeled and functioned as a school from 1950 to 1984. The photographer says, “This photo shows the upper floor of one of the school buildings. Obvious signs of fire damage can be seen here, charred walls and floor, burned rubble and other debris. I don’t know when this fire burned, but it caused a considerable amount of damage.”

Kuhns and Scholes have photographed deserted places in Delle, Draper, Goshen, Leamington, Logan, Ogden and Salt Lake City, to name a few. Photos were also taken in California and Nevada.

Kuhns was born in 1987 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Five years later the family moved to Logan. After graduating from Logan High School, he moved to Salt Lake City. Kuhns studied graphic design at the University of Utah for three years. He’s currently employed at Pixels Foto & Frame in Sandy.

In 2005, Kuhns received a small, point-and-shoot digital camera as a Christmas gift from his parents. He says, “I promptly spent the next two years shooting that little camera into the ground. After a lot of saving, I finally retired the camera for a Nikon D300 SLR I shoot now.”

Kuhns continues, “Looking back, it is easy to see the roots of my interest in forgotten places from my time in Logan: the occasional exploration of a place not generally intended for

public consumption. Over time, I embraced the Latin phrase ‘Omne ignotum pro magnifico’ or in English ‘Everything unknown is taken for magnificent.’”

When Kuhns puts down his camera, it’s usually because he wants to long board, ski, disc golf, hike, play guitar and spend time with family and friends.

Scholes was born in 1983 in Logan and raised in a number of cities, including Boise and Farmington. The artist currently lives in South Jordan and works part-time for GoEngineer. He

anticipates graduating from Utah Valley University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology

The photographer has been making pictures since childhood. He says, “My dad would load an old 35mm camera for me and moments later I would return, having taken an entire roll of nothing but cloud photos. Despite my initial propensity towards cloud photography, my dad continued to encourage me and to pay for the film. Through high school and college my interest in photography continued to grow.”

Scholes enjoys travel, art, pottery and listening to all kinds of music in his leisure time.