The Abandoned Pabst Brewery

Inside the abandoned Pabst Brewery complex in downtown Milwaukee

As promised previously, a few snaps from this afternoon.

Pabst beer was brewed in Milwaukee for 152 years, and at its peak in 1978 was one of the largest labels in America. But by the 1990s the company had gone into steep decline and become a "virtual brewery" (contracting out the making of its beer). The company still exists today, but in 1996 the huge historic brewery complex in Milwaukee was closed. Abandoned since then, it's slated for urban renewal beginning very soon, although the final plans haven't been revealed to the public yet.

Paint peel porn was plentiful

Once renowned far and wide for its tours, the ruins are still toured by visitors...frequently including photographers. Our friend Jack MacDonough (you've crossed his path before in these pages) invited me to come with him today to photograph in the old bottling plant.

I noticed right away that we have different modus operandi. Jack sets right up and starts shooting—whereas I'd reconnoiter the whole joint first, then decide where I wanted to shoot. The scene at the top of the post is what meets the eye right inside the door where we entered the old building.

Jack was working—he'll sell pictures he made today. I, on the other hand, was just messin' around:

Jack, S2 in one hand, Gitzo tripod in the other, through a gap in the wall next to a door covered in (what else?) peeling paint.

Messing around or not, I should have brought my tripod along. Tactical error. The picture below probably comes off the worst of the four here on the blog page, because you're seeing it too small, but on my screen it's the one that interests me the most. (I suppose you have to like pictures of photographers working, which of course I do.)

Unfortunately I had to push the little GF1 to ISO 1600, which is beyond its limits. The file is pretty crungey close in. Maybe I'll send it to Ctein so he can work his industrial light and magic on the offending pixels; this one would be a challenge to print.

(By the way, see all that whitish cruft on the ground in front of the archway? Bird feathers.)

It was fun to get out from behind the computer and do some shooting today. I don't get around much anymore.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Timprov]

I think #1 is my favorite of your photos.

[Ed]

Why do you need to push the GF1, it is equiped with a capable 1/4 thread in the right position to attatch the tripod to it. In fact your freinds S2 isn't that capable in high iso either, but he shlepped a tripod to the gig, eh, indoor, dark building = tripod.

BTW, great place for some nifty panorama work.

Greetings, Ed

[Ed]

And, yes some thifty masked noise correction in Noise Ninja can sure improve matters a great deal especially if you have a RAW file at hand (the 16 bits give Ctein more data to play with). You could even go as far to make a RAW HDR and use the freeware (giftware)

http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/

to combine things.....in which you seperate the darks from the mids from the highs and combine the layers in Picturenaut. You could try if your and my mail holds a 14 Mb RAW, would be more then happy to give it a try.

Greetings, Ed

[Philip Storry]

Mmmm. Decay porn!

Thanks for this, Mike - I really like the first two pictures. I'm one of those freaks for whom decay, detritus and the discarded really works. And you've got some great pictures there of that.

Although, as you can tell, I prefer my decay without people in it.

On a tangent: When I started taking photos of this kind of thing, I had no idea what this oeuvre is called. So I made up my own name: "Discardia", which I define as the things that humans have abandoned without any care.

[Ed Grossman]

The buildings of old have a certain grandeur about them that persists even in decline. I shudder to think what our particleboard office parks and shuttered big box stores will look like decades after their closing...

I hope you add that 1st shot to the "images to print" list!

[Robert Roaldi]

Ever see this: "http://www.detroityes.com/home.htm" ?

It can almost make you cry.

[The Lazy Aussie]

Wasn't it the joke brand? And who makes the Pabst Blue Ribbon all the nuevo hipsters drink?

[John Brewton]

What a neat place to shoot. And, don't kid yourself Mike, you got some good ones.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Looks like you're scouting locations for the next French Connection film.

[Mike Johnston]

"Why do you need to push the GF1, it is equiped with a capable 1/4 thread in the right position to attatch the tripod to it."

Ed,
Read the post again....

Mike

[Rob Atkins]

I'm so envious of your outing, Mike. The paint peal is particularly pleasing.

[Jeffrey Goggin]

@ Philip:

"Discardia" ... I like it! My friend Jim W. often refers to it as "Ruins Porn," but your label sounds much classier.

[Dennis Allshouse]

Good for you, Mike!

Ironically(?), nobody has mentioned the beer which you could get on the east coast back in the early '70s. It was decent preferably in bottles not cans. Ah, but was it pre-virtual?

[Dan Mouer]

I liked Phillip Storry's take: Decay porn. It certainly is a favorite photographic subject. Abandoned factories, prisons, insane asylums, slave cabins, steel mills, train yards and stations. Oh, yes, and naked women in bizarre poses in abandoned buildings.

It seems such a clichė to me, but I still seek them out and shoot them myself. I find it very difficult to walk past peeling paint or crumbling brick withpout grabbing the camera. Guess these kinds of shots are no more a clichė than landscape, classic nudes, still life, or people looking funny in black-and-white on big city streets.

[Tom]

I quite like #1. You should put it on a print sale with your loaner Canon Printer.

Then we can compare your printing to Ctein's.

[Bob Dales]

Aren't we photographers lucky that paint peels? Homeowners not so much. The drainpipe rocks.
bd

[robert e]

Ha. At first glance, I thought the guy with a tripod was under a dark cloth.

I love "peeling paint porn", and on-site framing, too. Thanks for sharing the nice shots.

[Chad Thompson]

A brewery that used to make PBR? Talk about a hipster paradise. You should have done all the shots with Hipstamatic or instagram. At the very least could you add some grunge and borders please?

[Karl]

Just made some similar shots of a grand dame in decline. I think this building is testament to military waste, it being a shuttered Air Force facility in Rantoul,IL named "Whitehall." The tragedy, if there is one,is that the building appears to be built to withstand a nuclear strike, all reinforced concrete with a reinforced concrete roof. One room is 200 feet long and 60 feet wide, all clear span. Just shut down and forgotten. It's developed a marvelous patina, and the sense of weight and calm when you're inside is palpable. http://knize.smugmug.com/Travel/Illinois2012/whitehallrantoul/23186004_FsCrfL

[Usha]

Hi, can you please tell me how one can get access to the building. Is it open to anyone who walks in or do we need a permit or a ticket? Any help would be most appreciated.

[Ed]

Oops and fellow oops so to speak......:-). My old friend the Gilux reporter 2 (or 3 I haven't got a clue) currently resides in a bag at the carrier of my bike. Now that can be a problem when I decide to take a car.....I have to remember to put one in the trunk of the car as well.

Greetings, Ed

And the offer still stands :-).

[Rod S.]

Hey, Mike, nice photos!

I particularly like photo 1; the verticals are vertical and the level of contrast looks natural, so I can immediately suspend disbelief and place myself there in your shoes. The reflection on the floor is balanced nicely by those interesting finger-like supports beneath the ceiling. As a result, the photo is elegant and restful to look at. Nicely seen.

In photo 4, I like the splotches on the wall with their interesting diversity of form. And yes, the quiet photographer provides another plane. I think, however, that the left side lacks the interest that the right has, and so, for me, the photo lacks balance. I like the quality of the side-light and the centrally-placed pole, however.

At first glance I thought Jack was holding a trusty Pentax digital spot meter. I know; don't say it. I have two.

[robert harshman]

Learn to shot/process and post 360's :) And then have a beer on me :)

Could have been so much better, if you want to document a place, learn to use 360's too. Nothing works as well as well done stills and a selected set of 360's.

Call me next time. you are missing a lot.

Robert

[Mike Johnston]

Robert,
Nah, not my thing. I'd rather look at YOUR 360s. [s]

Mike

[Mart]

I'm still figuring out DOF with the 20mm f1.7 so just wondering how you pick an aperature setting and where you focus for shots like these? (bearing in mind the GF1 like my GH1 gives no indication of focus distance) Ta :-)

[Mike Johnston]

"I'm still figuring out DOF with the 20mm f1.7 so just wondering how you pick an aperature setting and where you focus for shots like these?"

Mart,
For most of these shots I had the camera set on ISO 800 and f/5.6. I don't specifically recall where I placed the focus because it's such second nature now that I'm not really conscious of doing it. I would guess that generally, I focus bang on whatever I want to be in sharpest focus if there's a central point of interest to the photo, or about a third of the way into what I want to be in focus otherwise. I probably grabbed focus on the frontmost post in the top photo, right on the pipe in the second one, and right on Jack in the third and fourth ones.

Mike

[Jon Porter]

Hope the building can be "repurposed" instead of torn down. The Beer Line was once a major switching district for the Milwaukee Road (itself long gone), with its Beloit-built Fairbanks-Morse locomotives running down street trackage as it switched the Pabst, Blatz, Schlitz and other Breweries.

[chelsea stotts]

Is the building open for anyone to shoot or do you need approval first? This is an amazing location! I loved the 2nd & last captures.

[Mike Johnston]

Chelsea,
We're not 100% certain, but Jack thinks our tour was the last one before construction is scheduled to begin. The whole facility is to be renovated and repurposed.

Mike