Giclée Printing (Giclée is pronounced 'Zhee-Clay', a French word describing a "technique of spraying") has become widely used to define quality, archival fine art created by digital print technology.  The process has received wide acceptance in the art community as a means of reproducing paintings, and other types of graphic art.

The images displayed here are from original large-format photographic negatives and transparencies utilizing the Giclée process to enhance the depth and beauty of the subject.

All images are handcrafted and printed on heavy watercolour paper, size 17" x 22" (43 x 56cm).  Monochromatic images use subtle cream and magenta tones, complemented by slight tinting, giving each image its own unique warmth and vibrancy. All prints are guaranteed archival to a minimum 50 years, as determined by independent testing.

 

I have been utilizing large-format photography to gather images of the Western Canadian Prairies for the past 15 years.  The large format (4" x 5") negatives and transparencies preserve the sharpness and clarity of the subjects in the broad vistas that the Prairies present to the viewer.

Prints are $290Cdn/$290US (unframed)+ Shipping and Handling.

To order, please feel free to contact me anytime. Prints are provided in a heavy shipping mailer, suitable for remailing if being used as a gift.

Satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not happy in any way with your purchase, your money will be cheerfully refunded.

Tom Hamp
Photographer 403-878-2676

Email:     TomHamp@PrairieLight.org

 

 

The following is a partial presentation of the Grain Elevator Portfolio.

All Prints are Much Sharper than Appear Here
Copyright Statement is Not Present on Actual Prints
Click on Images to See Detail

 


'Summer's Gold'

This image of a brilliantly sunlit canola field, grasses and distant trees was captured on a warm summer's day, just south of Calgary, on the way to Priddis, Alberta.

It is typical of the wonderful vistas of flowering canola fields that grace Western Canada during the summer months, bringing delight to the beholder and crowning the visual experience of that brief season.

For
Colour Images
Click Here

'Quiet Valley'

Looking out from the bluff above the small whistlestop of Sharples, east of the town of Carbon, one can visualize the way things once were in this valley, many years ago.

Steam trains, old farmsteads, grain elevators, and numerous small bridges over the small creek – all shared the broad coulee leading into the badlands. A step back in time...

'Still Standing'

This is an image of one of the last remaining elevators in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. As evidenced by the many layers of peeling paint, it has seen several owners throughout its long life, including Veteran Grain Company and United Grain Growers.

It was common for grain elevators to be bought and sold, and repainted, as the many early grain companies went out of business or merged with competitors. This elevator is typical of a smaller style of elevator in use since the 1920's.

 

'At Meeting Creek'

Meeting Creek is a small hamlet nestled in a quiet valley on an abandoned rail bed between Camrose and Settler.

In recent years, the hamlet played host to tourists on the Alberta Prairie Steam Tours, offering tours of the restored elevators and railway station. With the removal of the rail line, the tours have ceased to come, but the buildings remain.

Formerly known as Edensville, it was renamed to acknowledge its location as the meeting place of the Cree and Blackfoot on buffalo hunts.

 

 

 

'Road Home'

This view of the hamlet of Meeting Creek, Alberta, looking into the valley from the south, recalls to mind the return home after a long journey or hard day of harvesting.

The charming house at the bottom of the hill leading into the hamlet sits in front of one of the two grain elevators and train station, capturing some of the more symbolic elements of rural life in Alberta. This is a companion print to "At Meeting Creek", which shows a view of the hamlet and its namesake creek from the other side of the valley.

'Bread of Life'

The window of an abandoned church in Dorothy, Alberta frames a grain elevator standing on the brilliantly sunlit banks of the Red Deer River.

The elevator once served the area on the east side of the river, prior to the removal of the rail line many years ago.

Dorothy is now a small 'ghost town' in the Badlands of Alberta, near Drumheller.

 

 

'A Path Forgotten'

This companion print to "Bread of Life", above, was taken of the exterior of the abandoned United Church in Dorothy, Alberta on New Year’s Eve, 1993.

It provides a glimpse of the simple values of the pioneers in early Alberta, and their determination to preserve them. The church still stands, although rapidly deteriorating from the elements.

Once a house which was moved from Finnegan to Dorothy, the structure served as a church during 1932 - 1961.

'Last Harvest'

This sunset photograph of the last elevator in Dalemead, Alberta was taken just prior to its demolition in 1995. The train has taken the last shipment of grain, emptying the elevator to allow demolition to proceed.

Dalemead was once a thriving little community to the southeast of Calgary. Having lost both of its elevators and its General Store, only a few houses now remain.

 

'Prairie Spring'

This blustery early Spring day photograph was taken just as the sun had broken through scudding clouds, bathing the Herronton elevator in a brilliant shaft of light.

Herronton is a small community southeast of Calgary, Alberta, and is one of the few remaining hamlets to still have a grain elevator.

 

 

'Chinook Morning'

Taken on a quiet, chilly morning in October, 1993, this photograph of the two elevators in Dalemead, Alberta captures the essence of a peaceful rural Alberta morning...

A chinook arch in the sky, the Rocky Mountains in the far distance, and frost on the glistening rails.

 

 

'Trail's End'

This sunset image was taken in October, 1993 from the site of what once was the end of the trail for cattle roundups in the early 1900's. Cattle were gathered here prior to shipping to market by rail.

Cayley is a quiet hamlet south of High River, Alberta. Only the middle of the three elevators now remains, and is itself threatened by the imminent removal of the rail line.

 

 

 

'Railway Avenue'

Every prairie town has a 'Railway Avenue' - where a gallery of elevators was once lined up along the tracks.

The three elevators in Cayley, Alberta catch the first warming rays of the rising sun on a chilly autumn morning.

As the hamlet awakens, the only sounds to be heard are the fluttering wings of ever-present birds in sudden flight.

 

 

 

'Morning Sentinel'

This is a pristine example of grain elevator architecture - a gem which was immaculately maintained right up until its removal months later.

To be in the close presence of these structures can be a powerfully moving experience.  One can feel the embodiment of the quiet forthrightness and reserve of the Western Canadian Prairies .

 

'Summer Fallow'

This row of elevators in Hussar, Alberta stands idle in the early-summer sun, waiting for renewed activity with the coming harvest.

The two nearer elevators are showing signs of their age, and are near the end of their useful life. The larger and more distant 'Pool' elevator promises a few more years of life in this 1996 image.

 

'Prairie Dove'

Sharples, Alberta was once a small 'whistlestop' west of Drumheller, Alberta, nestled in the western coulees of the Badlands.

This small elevator was once owned by Parrish & Heimbecker (P&H), and had two 'annexes' - one on each side of the elevator. The removal of one of those annexes, leaving behind the hanging grain conduit, resulted in this evocative image.

'Receding Storm'

Taken on an early Spring day in 1994, this image of the Delia, Alberta elevators was taken just after the passing of a brief , but intense, thunderstorm.

The wet, freshly plowed fields glisten in the returning sun which illuminates the elevators against a backdrop of dramatic clouds moving off to the North.

Delia is a small town north of Drumheller, Alberta. Since this photograph was taken, all but one elevator have been demolished, or burned, as in the recent accidental fire which destroyed several of the Alberta Wheat Pool elevators in this landscape.

 

'The Pool'


This view of the Alberta Wheat Pool elevators, Queenstown, was taken on a hot summer day,
looking through the walkway from the manager's office to the United Grain Growers elevator.

Queenstown is a virtual 'ghost-town' which once sported an active community hall and garage, and is located just north of Milo, in the southeast of Alberta.


 

'Days' End'

This image is one of the first in the Grain Elevator Series, taken in the late afternoon in Granum, Alberta, under a November sky in 1993.

The town was about to find out that these elevators were to be removed, early in the grain companies’ demolition programs.

The elevators were indeed removed a month later, leaving the town completely without elevators - a sad irony, given the town’s name means ‘grain’ in Latin.

 

 

'Azure'

This lone elevator has retained its original colours and stands isolated on private land, no longer served by the railway.

All Western Canadian elevators were originally this colour; it was not until the early 1960's that they were painted in the familiar distinctive colours of their owners.

 

Colour Images

 

 

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