In 2016 I was working on a project for Faceless Arts looking at Ferrybridge C Power Station and the impact this structure has on the local community. At the time the plant was in the process of being decommissioned ready for demolition.
As part of the research for the project, I was allowed access to the site to photograph it as it was then.
I was asked which parts I wish to photograph and immediately responded ‘Inside a cooling tower?’
I had been inside once before as a child on an open day at the power station. I was accompanied by my father, who was also very keen to see inside. I remember it being a magical experience. Over the years I wondered if my memory had shifted. Had I imagined it to be greater than it really was.
After a little searching, some keys were found and we set off, picking up a couple of curious employees along the way who had worked at the site for a number of years but never been inside.
The photographs below were taken on my iPhone. It was impossible to get the whole interior in one shot until I did an upwards panorama, (the last photograph) which gives an exciting, if distorted, view.
It was even better than I remembered and I present them here as a found sculptural space, a spatial memory.
tony wade 