There’s something quite mesmerising about standing on a hillside overlooking an industrial behemoth as darkness falls, pink tinted smoke and steam drifting across the complex web of pipes, towers and chimneys, incandescent lighting piercing the scene like a thousand yellow stars. Flames dance atop steel columns adding further dynamism to a visual feast that, depending on your point of view, is either a spectacular display of industrial prowess or something akin to the gates of hell. But it’s so serene, enchanting, awe inspiring…
In Scotland for the weekend I’m revisiting a scene I first shot in summer 2014, partly for a different take but mostly because it will soon be gone. Grangemouth Refinery is slated for closure next year when the flames will stop burning, the steam will cease, and the refinery will fall silent. And then the site will be cleared and redeveloped in to an import terminal.
Like the steelworks and foundries that have closed across the country over the last half-century or so, this living, breathing beast whose town is so much defined by it, will soon be no more.
Thanks for looking.