King Cotton’s Abandoned Temple

King Cotton's Temple
King Cotton’s Temple

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Tuesday I was down in Moulton, Alabama to attend my maternal Aunt Helen Parker’s funeral. She had a long life of 94 years and though it was sad to know she had passed on it was also reaffirming in the way the passing of a loved one draws a family together. Aunt Helen had started her life as the daughter of sharecroppers in the Alabama cotton fields but through hard work she and her family rose into a comfortable middle class farm life. She, as so many others in the south, had worked hard and risen above the tough times that almost all rural southerners endured especially through the Great Depression. Throughout her long life her faith and love for her family strengthened and supported her through the loss of two husbands and many others in her large family. Aunt Helen ended her life surrounded by her nieces and nephews who all loved her dearly. Her life was one of persistence and compassion and we will all miss her and remember fondly her lilting “I love you” which she always said when she hugged us as we were heading out her door after a visit.

On my way to Moulton I passed through Decatur Alabama and saw these large buildings alongside the railroad tracks on the west side of the city. I had never been down that particular street before and in all the times I had travelled down there I had not seen these unusual structures. I am always drawn to abandoned industrial sites and decided that on my way back home I needed to stop and photograph them. When I asked my cousins what they were they told me they had once been part of a large cotton oil and cotton meal manufacturing complex.

When I arrived there I found a business office in another building nearby and asked if I could go in and photograph the place. The receptionist said that they belonged to the city of Decatur and that she didn’t know any more about them. I decided that I would find an opening in the fence around them and see for myself what mysteries they held. The sky was heavy with cold gray clouds and a light mist was falling as I unpacked my cameras and scouted for and found an opening in the fence around the property. The wind was pretty strong and the metal on the buildings rattled and creaked; it was as if the buildings were speaking to me telling about their earlier days as productive structures now left to decay and eventually return to the earth.

I shot everything that day in a three frame bracket set of -2, 0, and +2 EV. I then merged them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before finishing them in Aperture 3. In some of the interior shots I went into OnOne Software’s Perfect Effects and played around with some of the many presets. The images below are from that experimentation and application within the Perfect Photo 6 Suite from OnOne after being merged and tone mapped in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I like the way that the two software programs complimented each other and allowed me to bring out the greens that the moisture inside these buildings had created by feeding mosses and molds on the corrugated steel. My final processing with all these images was in Aperture 3 where I used various adjustments and completed the sharpening prior to exporting the final images you see here.

Inside the Temple #1
Inside the Temple #1

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Inside the Temple #2
Inside the Temple #2

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Inside the Temple #3
Inside the Temple #3

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12 thoughts on “King Cotton’s Abandoned Temple

      1. Yes… I was trying to remember where that location is. I have an old house on Hwy 20 right near the old state bank and historic district.

        1. They are on Old Moulton Road just over the railroad tracks. I come into Decatur from I-65 I think it’s US 31-W. Then I used to turn one block past this intersection when I was going out to Moulton. My cousin said that the building near the corner of that intersection is the old armory if that helps you. I was letting my GPS guide me instead of going on memory which was why I turned one block earlier than I had for the past 40 years. Since I know the route by heart I don’t have the highway numbers in my head.

  1. I love the shapes in and of, this building. It seems like serendipity that you would find this, Nick. It seems a building just meant for your camera. The images are processed beautifully.

    1. I too think it was serendipity that I discovered them. Friends and fellow photographers often ask me how I find the places I shoot and I tell them it’s as if they appear before me out of nowhere. I sometimes think that I am drawn to some of my subjects by an unseen force that wants to reveal the past to me. I know that isn’t rational, they have been there for ages, but some force puts me there at the right time.

  2. Nick, wow brother!!! What a trip an a memory forever. God bless your entire family, Ted Heitzman

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