For more than 200 years, gas holders have been a feature of Britain’s skyline and now Laura Fisher’s five-year journey to capture Britain’s last-remaining gas holders has culminated in a new photobook called Decommissioned.
image: for illustration purposes only
Dr Neil Clifton / Bethnal Green: Gasholder
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/c/c8/Bethnal_Green%2C_
Gasholder_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1726965.jpg
… my awareness of the decommissioning programme drove me to want to document and archive the UK’s last remaining gas holders…
Scottish Construction Now writes:
… the industry has evolved since gas holders were first constructed to hold town gas in the nineteenth century. It’s now more efficient to store natural gas underground and some holders have stood unused for decades. The time has come for these iconic structures to be safely dismantled, making way for a new era in the energy industry.
Photographer Laura Fisher has been on a five-year journey to capture Britain’s last-remaining gas holders, culminating in the publication of a new photobook called Decommissioned.
Medway-based Laura explained: “Decommissioned started life as a photography project during my first year at university, when I was looking at the environment and the British landscape. After finishing my studies, my awareness of the decommissioning programme drove me to want to document and archive the UK’s last remaining gas holders before they disappeared from our landscape for good. Before I knew it, I had embarked on a five-year expedition that resulted in me capturing 120 gas holder sites across England, Scotland and Wales.
“The project was such a fantastic opportunity for me to see parts of the UK I probably would never have seen otherwise. I travelled thousands of miles between locations and as time went on, I began to regard the holders as my friends. It was as though I was taking their portraits. I grew attached to each and every one.
“I was fascinated by the stories that I uncovered from the communities that lived and worked around the holders. I’ll always remember the maintenance technician at a gas holder in the West Country who told me how as a child, his father – who had also been a maintenance technician at the same site – took him up to the top of the holder to watch the air show from the best viewpoint in town.”….
You can find more of Laura’s work on Instagram and copies of Decommissioned can be purchased by contacting Laura directly at laurafisher007@sky.com
