Decaying Rapidly: Oil Mill of Port Gibson, Mississippi

Oil Mill, Anthony Street (4×5" Fuji Astia film, 135mm Schneider Xenar lens and too-small hood)

In late April (2022), a friend and I drove to Port Gibson, in Claiborne County, to look for interesting photo topics. We had both been to the unused oil mill on Anthony Street before and taken pictures there. But this visit, we were both amazed how the brush, poison ivy, and trees have overtaken the site and engulfed machines. Today, you can barely see through the fence, which supports luxuriant poison ivy growth. The jungle is taking over, as per many of the Life after People episodes. Here are some 2012 photographs from when the site was more visible. At that time, the gates were secure and I could not enter.

 Tachihara 4×5" camera, 135mm ƒ/3.5 Schneider Xenar lens, Fuji Astia film

Mill from corner of Anthony and Vanderhaven Streets (Fuji Astia film)

The Mississippi Cotton Oil mill may have been one of the first oil mills in the United States, with the original brick buildings dating to 1882. Preservation in Mississippi discussed the site in a short 2012 article. In the 1800s, cotton seed arrived by railroad. The rail line ran from the town of Grand Gulf to the depot in Port Gibson, but the tracks are now gone. I do not know when mill operations stopped. 

In February of 2012, I read an article in the Vicksburg Post about the mill, inspiring me to drive south to look at the site.

Disassembly of unit on Anthony Street

On that day, a crew of workers were disassembling machines on the north side of Anthony Street (the side nearest to Bayou Pierre. One of them said the machinery would be shipped to an oil company in Nigeria.

This is the view west along Anthony Street

Intact in 2012

Freshly collapsed approx. 2020 (Ilford Pan-F, Hasselblad 501CM, 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, 1/8 ƒ/11.5)

The front part of this building has collapsed. The brick unit to the rear looks like it is still mostly intact.

Vandeventer Street is rough, just horrifying. Many of these shotgun houses have disappeared. 

Port Gibson has some interesting photographic topics:

• I explored town on a gloomy December day using Ilford Pan-F film. 
• In 2019, I took some general photographs around town. 
• Wintergreen Cemetery is a walk through history. 
• The Historic Trace Theater burned and is now just a shell. 

The digital photographs above are from my Panasonic G1 µ4/3 camera. This was a very capable 12-mpixel camera, which I used in USA, Europe, and Nepal. Standby for some Hasselblad XPan panoramas in the future.

Another Film Treasure: Ilford Pan-F Plus

This short review is for a film that is still in production (yes, I do sometimes use modern film):  Ilford Pan F Plus. According to the manufacturer:

ILFORD PAN F PLUS is a slow speed, high contrast, black & white film offering exceptionally fine grain, sharpness and detail.

Suitable for bright conditions from sunny days to controlled studio lighting. It suits subjects ranging from architecture and still-life to portraiture and fashion.

PAN F PLUS is perfect for enlargements as negatives show an outstanding range of tone, high-edge contrast and extreme sharpness. It is therefore also suitable for a range of specialist or scientific applications such as photomicrography or the production of black and white slides.

This is a traditional cubic grain film, like the Kodak Panatomic-X that I normally use when I want a fine-grain traditional film. Pan-F has been in production for decades, but for some reason, I never tried it. My friend in Indiana, Jim Grey generously sent me a roll of Verichrome Pan film, but he also included a roll of Pan-F in 120 size and said Go At It. Most reviewers write that it is contrasty, so I loaded it in my Hasselblad and set out for Port Gibson on the last day of 2020, a gloomy day with drizzle (my favorite light). Because of the low light, these are all tripod-mounted exposures. I exposed it at EI (exposure index) of 32.

I sent the film to Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, to develop, and scanned the negatives with my Minolta medium format film scanner. To the eye, the negatives looked too contrasty. But the Silverfast Ai scanning software has a profile for Pan-F, and the resulting files looked just about right, with little need to manually adjust the contrast. Here are some examples, all full-frame. Click any frame to expand it. Please tell me what you think via the comments.

US 61

Unusual shed at 3316 US 61S, Vicksburg, Mississippi (80mm Planar lens)

Unknown shop or warehouse at Cedars Road, Vicksburg

Former Sonny's BBQ and gasoline, Yokena

I remember driving by this shop/gas station many times and thinking I should take some photographs. But I never did and now it is closed. Bogus.

Port Gibson

Fixer-upper truck, 1097 Shiloh Road, Port Gibson (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, ⅛ ƒ/11)

Fixer-upper cottage, Back Grand Gulf Road (50mm Distagon, ⅛ ƒ/8, minor fill flash)

North of Port Gibson, some shaded narrow roads wind through the woods. One of these leads past the popular Warner Tully YMCA summer camp, known by generations of summer campers. I want to go back and explore some more. You see many of trailers with beat-up cars and trucks abandoned on the lots.

Abandoned cottage, Vandeventer Street, Port Gibson (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11)

Abandoned house, Vandeventer Street (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11

Store/commercial building, Carrol Street

Port Gibson is pretty rough. Despite its fine architectural heritage, much of the town looks beat-up and dirty. The downtown has hollowed-out, like so many small towns in the US heartland.

House belonging to an artist, Farmer Street (80mm Planar-CB, ⅛ ƒ/11, minor fill flash)

I chatted with the gent who lives here. He graciously let me take a picture of his house. He had interesting items on the porch and in the yard.

Old Hwy 61 bridge over Little Bayou Pierre

This is the old Highway 61 bridge. Looking west, you see it from the current 61 bridge. I tried to find a viewpoint. Some gents at a car shop/garage graciously escorted me through the shop to the muddy banks of the Little Bayou Pierre. I slipped - mud everywhere. They said when the river overtops its banks, they get nasty water in their garage (and snakes). Note the water level stains on the concrete pier.

This is the end of my short experiment with Ilford Pan-F. This is nice film! It is very fine grain, similar to the Kodak Panatomic-X that I like. On this overcast, drizzly day, I did not have any issues with contrast and cannot comment on its performance on a sunny day. Of course, you can modify development to make a black and white film more or less contrasty. I am not sure when I will use it again because I still have 10 or 12 rolls of Panatomic-X in the freezer as well as some Fuji Acros 100 film. For hand-held use, Tri-X is more convenient. Regardless, thanks, Jim Grey, for sending me a roll of this Pan-F!

This is no. 07 of my irregular series on different films, but this product is still in production, unlike the other emulsions in the series.

Expired Film Treasure: 135-size GAF Versapan Black and White Film (Abandoned Films 04)

 

Background

Dear Readers, this will be a continuation of my irregular series about discontinued photographic films ("Film from the Dead"). It sounds very photo-geeky, but don't worry, there will be urban decay examples and even some "pretty" pictures. 

I have written about older films before. Long-term readers may remember that in spring of 2020, my friend gave me a cooler full of GAF Versapan 4×5" film packs. He had stored them in freezers since the 1960s. They proved to be completely viable, and I liked the results so much, I looked for other sizes of Versapan film on eBay. Amazingly, a fellow listed three rolls of 135 size (regular 35mm) with 1974 expiration, which he claimed had been frozen. Well, that was too good to resist, so I bought them. 

Some of you old-timers may remember when GAF sold many types of film in the United States (I am not sure about foreign distribution). The black and white emulsions were well-regarded, and I do not know why they stopped production of consumer products in the 1970s. This was 30 years before the digital tsunami overwhelmed the film companies, so digital is not a culprit here. GAF stands for General Aniline & Film Co., an old-line film company from Binghamton, New York. The history of this company is complicated and was intertwined with ANSCO and Agfa. Read a more detailed history on Mike Eckman's excellent review of an ANSCO Super Regent camera. 

Technical Notes

I loaded my first roll of Versapan in a Pentax Spotmatic II camera at exposure index (EI) of 100 and used part of the roll around Vicksburg. Then I exposed the second half in my Leica M2 camera. I sent the roll to Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, to develop in Xtol developer. Xtol is an amazingly effective developer and appears to work well with almost any black and white emulsion. The negatives displayed high base fog, which is common for old film, but plenty of density and detail. For my second roll, I exposed at EI=64 in a Vito BL camera.

I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i scanner. The Silverfast Ai scanning software did not have a Versapan profile (obviously), but with some experimenting, I selected the profile for Kodak BW400CN film. This was surprising because BW400CN was a chromogenic film (C-41 development used for color print films), but regardless, I liked the way it handled the Versapan. But for some frames, the Kodak Plus-X profile looked better. 

Vicksburg

Clay Street view west to the Yazoo Canal (50mm ƒ/1.4 SMC Takumar lens, 1/125 ƒ/5.6½)

Back of 1220 Washington Street (24mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Ergon Refinery, Haining Road, Port of Vicksburg (55mm ƒ/1.8 Super-Takumar lens)

Tracks under I-20 bridge (135mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens, 1/30 ƒ/5.6½, yellow-green filter)

Smith's Appliances, Magnolia Road (35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-M lens)

Smith's Appliances is full of interesting automobile and filling station memorabilia. Thank you Mr. Smith for generously letting me take pictures inside. This was a 1-sec exposure with the Leica camera placed on a shelf.

Bamboo grove, Confederate Avenue, Vicksburg National Military Park (50mm Summicron lens)

Bridge over Stouts Bayou, Letitia Street (Vito BL camera, 1/30 ƒ/5.6)

Collapsing church, Glass Road (Vito BL camera, 1/30 ƒ/11, yellow filter)

Edwards

Abandoned trailer, US 80 approx. 1 mile east of Edwards (35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-M lens) 

East of Edwards, US 80 is the frontage road just south of I-20. I do not know if this was the alignment of 80 originally or if the old road bed was subsumed by the interstate. West of Edwards, 80 is the original 1920s roadway.

Utica

Burks Gro, Utica (Vito BL camera)

Delta and Waverly, Louisiana

Silos off Levee Road south of Delta, Louisiana (50mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-DR lens, orange filter)

Farm shed on LA 577 south of Waverly, Louisiana (Vito BL camera, 1 sec. ƒ/5.6)

Port Gibson and Yokena

Cottage on Ingleside Karnac Ferry Road, Port Gibson (Voigtländer Vito BL camera)

Alexander Road, Yokena (Voigtländer Vito BL camera)

The woods north of Port Gibson have some interesting old cottages and grungy trailers off the winding roads. I need to return to explore some more.

Avon

Abandoned farm, Riverside Road, Avon, Mississippi

Conclusions

This was a pleasant surprise! Amazingly, this Versapan still works and looks great. I love the tonality for my type of pictures. It shows that 50-year old black and white film that has been cool-stored can be used years after its expiration date. One roll of Versapan is left in my freezer - on hold for a future project.

These ancient Versapans were definitely more grainy than Fuji Acros or even contemporary Kodak Tri-X. Versapan looks like an old-school mid-speed film, like Plus-X. Well, no wonder, it is 50 years old. It gave many of my pictures a gritty press photography look, which I like for urban decay. Looking at the original TIFF files carefully, I can see many tiny white spots in the negatives. I think they are not bubbles from development but rather deterioration of the emulsion. Resized at 1600 pixels to show here on the web, the spots are invisible. 

It is fun to experiment with old films, but you need some assurance on how they were stored. 

The next article will be on Kodak Panatomic-X film in 135 size.  

Appendix

Please click the link for the data sheet that came with the GAF Versapan film. They list the film speed as ASA 125/22 DIN. Unfortunately, it does not provide any development times for contemporary film developers. 

Fire: Historic Trace Theater, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Bad news. The Vicksburg Post reported that a fire broke out at the Trace Theater in Post Gibson on March 13, 2020. I photographed it in 2012 and had driven by several times since then, but did not see any activity. According to the Post:

The Trace Theater is located at the corner of Market Street and Carroll Street in Port Gibson and is considered a landmark in the city. 

According to cinematreasures.org, the Trace Theatre was owned and operated by the Ewings of Fayette as was the Fay Theatre in Fayette and the AutoVue Drive-In in Lorman. 

Other records show the building suffered a fire in 1948 and another in 1968 that reportedly caused the business to shut down for good.

The theater had been closed for 52 years? Amazing.

I previously wrote about Port Gibson in 2016, 2019, and again in 2019.

Resting in Peace, Wintergreen Cemetery, Port Gibson, Mississippi (B&W film)

Wintergreen Cemetery of Port Gibson, Mississippi, resembles a secret garden, a place that time forgot, with giant cedar trees, lichen-encrusted wrought-iron fences, and gravestones with dates from the 19th century. According to the National Park Service, Wintergreen Cemetery was established in 1807 and is the final resting place for Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Port Gibson.

There are so many fascinating stones and family plots, but I could only make a quick selection. The light was soft with minor drizzle - perfect for Ilford Delta 100 black and white film.

Giant trees have grown here for decades. This one has been gone a long time, but many other trees were damaged or toppled by a tornado on Nov. 1, 2018. A lady from the cemetery management company told me they were waiting to bring in heavy-duty tree removal machinery to lift massive limbs. Stones were knocked down and need to be restored.

Many of the family plots are surrounded by beautiful wrought-iron fences cast in the shape of tree limbs or vines. This type of metalwork may have been a major industry in the 1800s.

The historic Jewish cemetery is a few blocks away. It is maintained by the same company that operates Wintergreen. A Catholic cemetery is nearby, but I was running out of daylight and did not explore.

These photographs are part of a test of my new 1957-vintage Voigtländer Vito BL camera with its wonderful 50mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar lens. I used a tripod for all frames with exposures in the range of ¼ or ½ sec. at an aperture of about ƒ/8.0. Some of the Vito cameras had a simpler shutter without the slow speeds, but this one has the full modern geometric progression of speeds (1 sec. to 1/300).

Click the link for more photographs of Port Gibson with the Vito BL.

Further Decay and Loss: Port Gibson, Mississippi (B&W film)

Background

Poor old Port Gibson. It is a historic town, with beautiful antebellum houses lining both sides of Church Street (which carries US 61 as it passes through town). The homes survived the Civil War because General Grant reportedly proclaimed the city to be "too beautiful to burn."

My 2016 post on Port Gibson showed some buildings that have since been lost. I had not been back since then for a careful visit, but on December 15 decided look around again. I had another motivation, to test a 1950s Voigtländer Vito BL camera that I had just bought. Some Ilford Delta 100 black and white film, a handsome old German camera, and an overcast, drizzly, gloomy day - what could be better? (Well, maybe a real coffee shop?)

I was appalled how bad the town looks. Some antebellum homes on Church Street are abandoned and are deteriorating, houses on side streets are ready to collapse, and empty lots have weeds and trash. How could this be happening?

North Port Gibson

Driving in from the north on US 61, the scene is peaceful and bucolic. This is rich farmland.

At the corner of US 61 and Grand Gulf Road, I saw a muddy driveway leading in to a farm. I asked some hunters if I could photograph their barn, and they responded that it was not their barn, so go right ahead. I assume most employees at Grand Gulf nuclear power plant zoom right by and miss the old barn and house on the right.

The northern outskirts of town, before you cross the Bayou Pierre, are horrifying. Stores are closed and the chain fast food stores purvey offal.

Little Bayou Pierre

Little Bayou Pierre, Feb. 18, 2017. Kodak Panatomic-X film (6×6), Rolleiflex 3.5E 75mm ƒ/3.5  Xenotar lens.

Little Bayou Pierre, Dec. 15, 2018. Ilford Delta 100 film (24×36mm), Vito BL, 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color-Skopar lens.

US 61 crosses Little Bayou Pierre. The water was high because of the large amount of rain that had fallen recently. Compare the 2017 photograph, when the sand bar was visible, with the 2018 high water scene.

Port Gibson

Look west from the north end of the US 61 bridge, and you can see cottages on Farmer Street.

This is sad: a handsome old mansion at 601 Church Street, unoccupied and on the path to deterioration.

A block east, an early-20th century cottage at 709 College Street has a collapsing roof. This was a nice home once.

On Marginal Street, across from the Jewish Cemetery, was a house with a dog.  He did not seem too interested in me, and after a half minute of barking, settled down.

On Jackson Street, an abandoned duplex is being engulfed with vines. A modern cruising motorcycle sat in the bushes. There was no obvious driveway with access, so weeds and brush had grown since it had been left there. What was it doing there? No one had removed it? These are 12 and 16 sec. exposures at ƒ/8. I used about 4 times the light meter reading to accommodate reciprocity failure.

Camera note

As I noted above, this was an experiment: I bought a 1957 Voigtlander Vito BL camera for $34 on eBay. It has a fixed 50mm ƒ/3.5 lens Color-Skopar lens (a Tessar derivative with a similar configuration of 4 lenses in 3 groups). The Vito is a strong German precision device from the end of the era when German camera manufacturers ruled the commercial market and just as the Japanese companies were surging forward.

Most of the exposures above are at ƒ/8 or so, where the lens would perform at its best. At first, the slow shutter speeds were definitely slow, but after some exercise, the leaf shutter settled down and sounds about right. The film pressure plate had some rust pips, so the first roll of film was badly scratched on the back (base) side. But I have cleaned the plate with a jewelry rouge cloth and an eraser. If need be, I will try some super-fine wet-dry sanding cloth. Stand by for more examples in the future from this little Vito camera. What do you readers think of the lens quality?