Forgotten Saskatchewan

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Chris Attrell, “Danbury Church,” 2018

framed print, 16” x 24”

In the 1920s, Saskatchewan was booming, with the third-largest population amongst the provinces. Even headier days were supposed to be ahead. Dreams were big.

And then came the Depression in the 1930s. Many farmers and small communities never recovered. Many a dream was shattered in what are now the abandoned farm houses, village stores, churches and grain elevators throughout the southern half of the province. After the Depression there was increased mechanization. Fewer people were needed to farm the land. Entire communities became ghost towns.

From his base in Shaunavon, in Saskatchewan’s southwest, Chris Attrell travels across the province seeking out reminders of shattered dreams and photographing crumbling architecture. Yes, the abandoned buildings are forlorn. But Attrell gives them a certain dignity. They are, he says, like living museums.

“I don’t think we should really be sad per se,” he says. “There is progress happening and not everyone had to leave. The one thing I do find sad was all the optimism in many of the smaller communities that never recovered from the Depression. They had big dreams but the land was unforgiving during the Depression and, by the time it recovered, automobiles made doing commerce in larger towns easier.”

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Chris Attrell, “Bents, SK,” 2016

framed print, 16” x 24”

Attrell includes 22 haunting photographs in his show, Forgotten Saskatchewan, at the library in Eastend until March 31. Then it moves down Highway 13 to Shaunavon’s Harvest Eatery, one of Saskatchewan’s most celebrated restaurants, from April 2 to July 21. It runs until the end of Shaunavon’s Boomtown Days weekend. Clearly, Shaunavon fared better than some communities.

Attrell teaches photography across Western Canada. He also creates stylized portraits of people posed in rugged places, such as Saskatchewan’s Great Sandhills or Alberta’s Red Rock Coulee. But his passion is photographing abandoned buildings across the Prairies.

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Chris Attrell, “Monster House,” 2016

framed print, 16” x 24”

The dark, gothic look of Attrell’s photographs is deliberate. “When shot in bad weather, night, cold of winter, these buildings take on a hauntingly beautiful look,” he says. “Once full of life, now they sit forgotten, yet they still have a presence. It is about as close as possible as you can get to designing a set without actually changing anything. Middle-of-the-day-in-summer photos do not quite give the appearance I am looking for.”

Attrell has not encountered ghosts in the abandoned structures, but says he can feel a deep sense of what life was like there. He mentions a large, vacant stone house he visited in 2015. He looked out a window and imagined it was where a mother would stand watching her children play outside. “A year later, I met up with an elderly lady who lived in that house in the ’50s and early ’60s and she confirmed her mother used to watch them play from that window.” ■

Forgotten Saskatchewan continues at the Eastend Library until March 31. Then it moves to Shaunavon’s Harvest Eatery from April 2 until July 21, 2019.