View allAll Photos Tagged GuardTower
Ikoflex Ic
(1956-59)
Zeiss Tessar 75mm
Arista Edu 100 (Fomapan 100)
The perimeter fence of an abandoned prison.
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Stretching from Shanhaiguan, by the Yellow Sea, to Jaiyuguan, in the Gobi Desert, the Great Wall (长城) is one of the world's most astonishing feats of engineering. The practise of building walls to protect China's northern frontier, began in the 5th century BC and lasted until the 16th century, with the most famous wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The wall was built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China, in part to protect the Chinese Empire from various nomadic groups or military incursions from Mongol tribes. Over time this discontinuous array of fortifications and ramparts were joined up to form the Wan Li Changcheng (The Wall of Ten Thousand Li), or the "Great Wall" to Western Speakers,
Oświęcim, Poland |
Looted objects storage building: where all prisoners belongings were stored.
Camp fence and guard tower: the typical fence post was 3,3 m high and fitted with 24 ceramic insulators. There were concrete slabs underneath the fence to prevent prisoners from tunneling. Electricity for the fence was supplied by a high tension line from Siersza Wodna power plant to the main substation in Babice, from which two separate feeders ran to Auschwitz I and Birkenau, where it was connected to the fencing (400 volts at Auschwitz and 760 volts at Birkenau).
At the end of 1943, guard towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. Construction was completed in the spring of 1944.
In 1989 I left apartheid South Africa and spent much of the next year travelling Europe. In October I found myself in the outback of Turkey, and the word on the street was that the Berlin Wall was about to fall. With it's fascinating history, cold war angst and strong David Bowie connection, Berlin had always been on my "must visit" list and I accelerated my plans to get there. Unfortunately the wall began crumbling on the evening of November 9, 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks. Nevertheless, I skipped through the Greek islands and caught the ferry from the port of Piraeus in Athens to Brindisi in Italy. I decided to bypass Naples and caught a fast train north to Rome. I think it was either on the ferry or on the train that I met fellow traveller, Serge Bowers from Pennsylvania in the USA. He and I made good companions and has a Chianti-fuelled blast through Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice (but that's another story).
On November 25, Serge and I went our own ways - he headed for Amsterdam, while I spent a couple of days in Milan, visiting the magnificent Il Museo Storico dell’Alfa Romeo in Arese. I then skipped through Switzerland (Lausanne, Bern, Luzern and Lurich) beofre finally making it to Stuttgart in Germany, taking in the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum. By this time (December 4) I was running low on cash and so resorted to hitch-hiking from Stuttgart to Mannheim, heading for Bonn where I was going to be staying with Prof. Dr. Marcella Rietschel (a Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn) who I had met in Istanbul in October. It was freezing cold and snowing out on the road, and by the time I reached Mannheim, I had had enough and headed to the Hauptbahnhof. After a cup of steaming coffee, I bought a ticket to Bonn, boarded the milk-train and continued the journey north. As fate would have it, I ended up in Zeppelinheim, close to Frankfurt, and that extraordinary interlude is detailed here.
Being on the bones of my financial arse, and with a severe cold snap making hitch-hiking a really bad idea, I now resorted to using the Mitfahrzentrale - an organised hitch-hiking (or "cap pooling") service where a driver can register how many spare seats they have in their car and where they are travelling from, to, and on what date. Potential passengers are provided with contact details and descriptions of the journey including any proposed stops along the way. As all travellers share costs, the savings can be extensive and it also serves as a good way to meet interesting people and to practice your German!
Our route to the east The so-called "inner German border" (a.k.a. "Zonengrenze") was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. The border was a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War. The border could be crossed legally only through a limited number of routes and foreigners were able to traverse East German territory to or from West Berlin via a limited number of road corridors, the most used of which was at Helmstedt-Marienborn on the Hanover–Berlin A2 autobahn. Codenamed Checkpoint Alpha, this was the first of three Allied checkpoints on the road to Berlin. The others were Checkpoint Bravo, where the autobahn crossed from East Germany into West Berlin, and most famous of all, Checkpoint Charlie, the only place where non-Germans could cross from West to East Berlin. Lengthy inspections caused long delays to traffic at the crossing points, and for some the whole experience was very disturbing: "Travelling from west to east through [the inner German border] was like entering a drab and disturbing dream, peopled by all the ogres of totalitarianism, a half-lit world of shabby resentments, where anything could be done to you, I used to feel, without anybody ever hearing of it, and your every step was dogged by watchful eyes and mechanisms." (Jan Morris) Personally, having spent almost three decades of my life under the oppression of the apartheid regime, it felt all too familiar.
So, after an uncomfortable 6-8 hour road trip, I was finally there - Berlin! One of my German friends from South Africa (P.A.) had been a regular visitor to Berlin during our high school and university years, before relocating to the city in the mid-80's. In those days it made a lot of sense - getting out of South Africa after studying meant escaping two years military service with the south African Defence Force and moving to Berlin meant avoiding conscription into the German military as well. That is, in order to encourage young people to move to West Berlin, they were lured in with exemptions from national service and good study benefits. It was December 8, 1989 and P.A. was unfortunately not in town. But a mutual friend was - L.M. had left Africa at about the same time as Pierre and was an aspirant artist in Berlin. He offered me a place to stay and we spent a brilliant week together, partying, clubbing and taking in all the delights that this city in change had to offer! I don't remember too much, but have some photos that I am sharing for the first time, a quarter of a century later, to the day.
45657-19-ew - the caption on the back of the photo reads:
"An East German guard tower viewed through a hole in the "Berlin Wall". Taken from the Western side. West Berlin, Germany. Sunday, December 10, 1989."
Fishermen in a war torn land, still cast hope into a salty sea, ever aware the sun rises for them as it does for me
Da Nang, Vietnam, in my 20th year, long ago, but not so far away
(taken with an old instamatic--who remembers those?)
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Stretching from Shanhaiguan, by the Yellow Sea, to Jaiyuguan, in the Gobi Desert, the Great Wall (长城) is one of the world's most astonishing feats of engineering. The practise of building walls to protect China's northern frontier, began in the 5th century BC and lasted until the 16th century, with the most famous wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The wall was built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China, in part to protect the Chinese Empire from various nomadic groups or military incursions from Mongol tribes. Over time this discontinuous array of fortifications and ramparts were joined up to form the Wan Li Changcheng (The Wall of Ten Thousand Li), or the "Great Wall" to Western Speakers,
(Photograph taken in 1992)
The large gate with the two white towers is the bridge gate from the Middle Ages, which was once part of Heidelberg’s city wall. The current bridge that spans the Neckar River was built in 1788. The bridge was damaged in World War II and was rebuilt.
Close up of Guard Tower at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp in Independence California, during a smokey wildfire, bringing orange haze to the sky
June 25, 2016
A guard station at one of Cape Cod's ocean-side beaches, Nauset Beach. The sign warns beach-goers of the inherent hazards of swimming or wading in the wild North Atlantic Ocean.
Included on the sign is a warning about dangerous marine life. and the most significant creature here is the white shark, or great white shark. The white sharks patrol the length of seashore, hunting seals. Sometimes people are mistaken for seals!
Nauset Beach
Orleans, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2016
All Rights Reserved
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Guard Tower at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp in Independence California, during a smokey wildfire, bringing orange haze to the sky
Press "L" to view in Lightbox.
Stretching from Shanhaiguan, by the Yellow Sea, to Jaiyuguan, in the Gobi Desert, the Great Wall (长城) is one of the world's most astonishing feats of engineering. The practise of building walls to protect China's northern frontier, began in the 5th century BC and lasted until the 16th century, with the most famous wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The wall was built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China, in part to protect the Chinese Empire from various nomadic groups or military incursions from Mongol tribes. Over time this discontinuous array of fortifications and ramparts were joined up to form the Wan Li Changcheng (The Wall of Ten Thousand Li), or the "Great Wall" to Western Speakers,
North of Lone Pine, California, Manzanar was one of ten relocation centers where the US Government held people of Japanese descent during World War II. More than 10,000 people were interred here, living in barracks in a quickly built military style village. Today it is a National Historic Site with some buildings having been reconstructed.
Guard Tower with spotlight outside the Manzanar Japanese-American Internment camp with Sierra Nevada mountains in the background
To the north of Cap Corse, Barcaggio beach has gained a reputation as a getaway that should not be ignored. It has an expanse of fine sand, dunes that rank among the biggest on the island, the occasional cow and a panoramic view of the isle of La Giraglia, which is home to local sailors all year round.
The land between Macinaggio and Barcaggio, on the extreme end of Corsica, belongs to a protected area called the Site de la Capandula: a wonderful area to explore on foot, which boasts some fantastic beaches. Known as the “sacred promontory” by the Romans for its Christian settlements, the end of the cape also has many chapels in ruin like Santa Maria, near Macinaggio.
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We spent a day hiking between the village of Barcaggio and Santa Maria ruins in the northernmost part of Corsica island; this is truly a place to hide and enjoy some solitary walking.
Tsang Tai Uk in Sha Tin dates back to the mid-19th century is is one of the best preserved of the few remaining walled villages in Hong Kong. This village is rectangular in shape, this shot shows part of the front, the northern wall, plus one of the 4 guard towers.
The Manzanar Concentration Camp is on the National Register of Historic Places #76000484 and is also a National Historic Landmark.
Oświęcim, Poland |
Camp fence and guard tower: the typical fence post was 3,3 m high and fitted with 24 ceramic insulators. There were concrete slabs underneath the fence to prevent prisoners from tunneling. Electricity for the fence was supplied by a high tension line from Siersza Wodna power plant to the main substation in Babice, from which two separate feeders ran to Auschwitz I and Birkenau, where it was connected to the fencing (400 volts at Auschwitz and 760 volts at Birkenau).
At the end of 1943, guard towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. Construction was completed in the spring of 1944.
Yep, reminds me of The Walking Dead TV show. :-)
Abandoned Lorton Prison
iPhone 5
Lorton, VA USA
October 2013
July 3, 2017
Nauset Light Beach
Cape Cod National Seashore
Eastham, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2017
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Shot with a Canon 7D.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
An attempt to show the scale of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. This shot was taken from the end of the camp railroad, looking towards the enterance. The camp extends even further, so it really doesn't do it justice. But it gives some idea of how big this elaborate and well-thought-out place of mass-murder is.
26th st. & S. California Ave. This is along Sacramento on west end.
The Cook County Jail, located on 96 acres in Cook County, Illinois, is the largest jail in the United States of America housing approximately 9,800 men and women. It employs 3,800 law enforcement officials and 7,000 civilian employees.
The jail has held several infamous criminals including Al Capone, Tony Accardo, Frank Nitti, Larry Hoover, Jeff Fort, Richard Speck and John Wayne Gacy.
Inside Cook County Jail www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFU2Z18Kb-Q
Oświęcim, Poland |
Camp kitchen: the construction of the kitchen began in July 1940 in the northern part of the square of the former barracks of the Polish Army.
Camp fence and guard tower: the typical fence post was 3,3 m high and fitted with 24 ceramic insulators. There were concrete slabs underneath the fence to prevent prisoners from tunneling. Electricity for the fence was supplied by a high tension line from Siersza Wodna power plant to the main substation in Babice, from which two separate feeders ran to Auschwitz I and Birkenau, where it was connected to the fencing (400 volts at Auschwitz and 760 volts at Birkenau).
At the end of 1943, guard towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. Construction was completed in the spring of 1944.
The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO inscribed the Port Arthur Historic Site and the Coal Mines Historic Site onto the World Heritage Register on 31 July 2010, as part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property.
Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and an open air museum.
The site forms part of the Australian Convict Sites, a World Heritage property consisting of eleven remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries on fertile Australian coastal strips. Collectively, these sites, including Port Arthur, now represent, "...the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts.
Port Arthur was named after George Arthur, the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land.
The settlement started as a timber station in 1830, but it is best known for being a penal colony.
From 1833, until 1853, it was the destination for the hardest of convicted British criminals, those who were secondary offenders having re-offended after their arrival in Australia. Rebellious personalities from other convict stations were also sent here, a quite undesirable punishment. In addition Port Arthur had some of the strictest security measures of the British penal system.
Port Arthur was one example of the “Separate Prison Typology” (sometimes known as the Model prison), which emerged from Jeremy Bentham’s theories and his panopticon. The prison was completed in 1853 but then extended in 1855. The layout of the prison was fairly symmetrical. It was a cross shape with exercise yards at each corner. The prisoner wings were each connected to the surveillance core of the Prison as well as the Chapel, in the Centre Hall. From this surveillance hub each wing could be clearly seen, although individual cells could not. This is how the Separate Prison at Port Arthur differed from the original theory of the Panopticon.
The Separate Prison System also signalled a shift from physical punishment to psychological punishment. It was thought that the hard corporal punishment, such as whippings, used in other penal stations only served to harden criminals, and did nothing to turn them from their immoral ways. For example, food was used to reward well-behaved prisoners and as punishment for troublemakers. As a reward, a prisoner could receive larger amounts of food or even luxury items such as tea, sugar and tobacco. As punishment, the prisoners would receive the bare minimum of bread and water. Under this system of punishment the "Silent System" was implemented in the building. Here prisoners were hooded and made to stay silent, this was supposed to allow time for the prisoner to reflect upon the actions which had brought him there. Many of the prisoners in the Separate Prison developed mental illness from the lack of light and sound.This was an unintended outcome although the asylum was built right next to the Separate Prison. In many ways Port Arthur was the model for many of the penal reform movement, despite shipping, housing and slave-labour use of convicts being as harsh, or worse, than others stations around the nation.
The peninsula on which Port Arthur is located is a naturally secure site by being surrounded by water (rumoured by the administration to be shark-infested). The 30m wide isthmus of Eaglehawk Neck that was the only connection to the mainland was fenced and guarded by soldiers, man traps and half-starved dogs.
Contact between visiting seamen and prisoners was barred. Ships had to check in their sails and oars upon landing to prevent any escapes. However, many attempts were made, and some were successful. Boats were seized and rowed or sailed long distances to freedom.
In 1836, a tramway was established between Taranna and a jetty in Long Bay, north of Port Arthur. The sole propulsion was convicts.
Port Arthur was sold as an inescapable prison, much like the later Alcatraz Island in the United States. Some prisoners were not discouraged by this, and tried to escape. Martin Cash successfully escaped along with two others. One of the most infamous incidents, simply for its bizarreness, was the escape attempt of one George "Billy" Hunt. Hunt disguised himself using a kangaroo hide and tried to flee across the Neck, but the half-starved guards on duty tried to shoot him to supplement their meagre rations. When he noticed them sighting him up, Hunt threw off his disguise and surrendered, receiving 150 lashes.
Port Arthur was also the destination for juvenile convicts, receiving many boys, some as young as nine. The boys were separated from the main convict population and kept on Point Puer, the British Empire's first boys' prison. Like the adults, the boys were used in hard labour such as stone cutting and construction. One of the buildings constructed was one of Australia's first non-denominational churches, built in a gothic style. Attendance of the weekly Sunday service was compulsory for the prison population. Critics of the new system noted that this and other measures seemed to have negligible impact on reformation.
Despite its reputation as a pioneering institution for the new, enlightened view of imprisonment, Port Arthur was still in reality as harsh and brutal as other penal settlements. Some critics might even suggest that its use of psychological punishment, compounded with no hope of escape, made it one of the worst. Some tales suggest that prisoners committed murder (an offence punishable by death) just to escape the desolation of life at the camp. The Island of the Dead was the destination for all who died inside the prison camps. Of the 1646 graves recorded to exist there, only 180, those of prison staff and military personnel, are marked. The prison closed in 1877.
Port Arthur is located approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) south east of the state capital, Hobart, on the Tasman Peninsula.
The Tennessee Tennessee State Prison was built in 1898 on a plan from another prison in New York. It was designed to scare the prisoner. Abandoned since 1992, the prison opened overcrowded and now is deteriorating rapidly. Visitors are not welcome. During the rain of May 1, 2010.
Interesting unknown tidbit: James Earl Ray was housed here on death row (for his own protection).
Maitland Gaol.
I have had a fascination with crime and prisons for most of my life and I can pinpoint the exact moment it began.
I've read all the books, seen all the movies, done tours and been interested in anything relating to serial killers and mass murders. Plenty of people I know think this is more than a little odd. But then again, other people I know are fascinated too.
When I was in 1st Class, our class had a trip to the local shopping centre to see a display of cars and equipment used by New South Wales Police. We got to sit in the cars and look at their guns and see knives and weapons that had been used in crimes. I doubt that kids in 1st Class these days would be allowed to do this but we loved it. On our way back to school we stopped in the Charlestown Police Station and saw the cells, had fingerprints taken and heard about "stranger danger". All very cool stuff.
So fast forward about 15 years and my grilfriend lives in Maitland where there is one of our State's Maximum Security Gaols. We were watching the TV and news reports were coming through about Australia's worst ever mass murder unfolding in Tasmania.
So we went out for dinner and drove up to the prison to have a look. The prison is in a normal residential area and she explained that when at school they used to have "gaol break" drills in addition to fire drills. For some strange reason we parked near a guard tower to eat our pizza. Inside the gaol are some of Australia's worst criminals including the Backpacker killer, Ivan Milat. As we ate the delicious pizza 3 Corrective Service Officers came behind the car, one armed with a rifle. They had already checked my car registration with the Police so knew who I was. They politely asked us why we were parked under the guard tower of a maximum security gaol at 23:00 on a cold, wet night. It suddenly dawned on us that this may be a litle stupid.
So we left. At the rest of the pizza at home and had a good laugh.
Maitland Gaol is no longer a functional gaol and is instead a tourist site. Cool.
Visit me at www.lemmingstone.com
Oświęcim, Poland |
Camp fence and guard tower: the typical fence post was 3,3 m high and fitted with 24 ceramic insulators. There were concrete slabs underneath the fence to prevent prisoners from tunneling. Electricity for the fence was supplied by a high tension line from Siersza Wodna power plant to the main substation in Babice, from which two separate feeders ran to Auschwitz I and Birkenau, where it was connected to the fencing (400 volts at Auschwitz and 760 volts at Birkenau).
At the end of 1943, guard towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. Construction was completed in the spring of 1944.
The chilling image of a Nazi soldier manning a machine gun nest at Dachau Concentration Camp offers a stark reminder of the brutal control exercised over the camp’s prisoners. This haunting photograph of a photograph, taken from within one of the guard towers, overlooks the bleak expanse of the Dachau camp, with its rows of barracks in the background. The camp, located just outside Munich, was established by the Nazi regime in 1933 and was the first of its kind. It later became a model for all subsequent concentration camps. Originally designed for political prisoners, it eventually housed thousands of Jews, Roma, and others persecuted by the regime. The presence of the machine gun nest reinforces the unrelenting terror and oppression that characterized daily life for those imprisoned at Dachau. Guards, often stationed in towers like this one, held complete control over the camp, ensuring that any attempt at resistance or escape was met with deadly force. Today, the Dachau Memorial Site stands as a somber reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II. Visitors from around the world come to this site to learn, reflect, and pay their respects to the countless victims of the Holocaust. The memorial offers a powerful educational experience, ensuring that the horrors of the past are never forgotten. The photo captures not only the cold machinery of war but also the inhumanity that permeated these camps, serving as a reminder of the importance of preserving historical memory and fostering a commitment to human rights.