Belle Isle is a beautiful little island filled amazing earth art. It is a small (54 acre) island on the James River in Richmond, VA. Belle Isle is owned by the city of Richmond, and was designated a city park in 1973. Belle Isle was the site of a Civil War prison camp for Union soldiers. The isle now contains abandoned industrial plants, steel and iron plant, and a hydroelectric plant. Many of these abandonments have been taken over or changed by the earth since the 1800s and early 1900s, hence why Belle Isle is filled with some amazing earth art. Below are the pictures I took on Nov. 16, 2008 that I thought captured the essence of the earth art on Belle Isle.
These 3 pictures are of the old Robert E. Lee bridge orig. built in 1934.
This is what is left of the Old Dominion Iron and Steel Company built in the early 1900s.
Prof. Birchett, did you put this red scarf here? : D
Look really closely and you can see a scary face!
This was a headgate cleaner used to filter out trash as the water went to the power plant. The right picture is the actual headgate. The hydroelectric power generating plant ran from 1904-1963.
Belle Isle Milling and Slitting Manufactory.Appox. 1815-1900
These pictures do not do Belle Isle justice. You have to go check it out for yourself. If you can't make it out there, then at least check out this video of Belle Isle from Discover Richmond.
2 comments:
Ashley,
I love the pictures that you have taken that are posted on your "Belle Isle" post. I especially love the sixth picture down. The angle is confusing, yet fantastic. I don't know whether to look at this picture as verticle or horizontal. The blue of the sky and the blue of the water next to each other has an interesting effect. It almost has a mirror image effect when you split the photo in half horizontally.
I also like the way you used human objects to direct attention to the more eartly elements in the photo (whether intended or not). It gives the feeling that humanity is leading me into nature...
Ashley ... did you see the man-made lake? I think of earth-art everytime I go to Belle Isle and see that lake ... and all the wonderful decaying history there ...
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