Ciera R. Mills
Environmental Justice Writer & Advocate
Photographs from Image, Place, Environment class at HSU, 2016 -
Rephotography Project – The Gingerbread Mansion:
The Gingerbread Mansion, located in historic Victorian Ferndale is considered one of the “West Coast’s most prized, photographed, and published 19th century architectural landmarks” (2016 Properties Online Inc.). It was originally built in 1899 as a family home for Dr. Hogan J. Ring, a Norwegian physician who immigrated to California. Dr. Ring was one of many Swiss and Danish immigrants who came to California for dairy-farming just after the Gold Rush, and laid the framework for Ferndale’s prosperous dairy industry. He commissioned his “Painted Lady” mansion under unusual construction methods, including a crawl space between the first and second floors to increase the overall height of the structure. Outside of the Ring family the mansion was known as “The Ring House” until, nearly a century later, it became The Gingerbread Mansion Bed and Breakfast Inn (Johanna Welty, Properties Online Inc.).
The Ferndale Museum discusses The Ring House and notes that “the original front section of the home is Queen Anne style with touches of Eastlake. The house, with its octagonal turrets, balconies, crenellated eaves, trimmed gables and wooden crested roof tops, is the largest in town.” It’s 32 rooms include – eleven guest suits and attached baths, two front parlors, a tea room, library, dining room, gift shop, commercial kitchen, reservation office, two laundry rooms, an innkeeper’s quarters on the top floor, and the formal English Garden.
The home stayed in fairly the same condition until preservation efforts began in 1970 to convert it into a bed and breakfast hotel as part of a popular home-style hotel experience movement across America. The mansion is designated as a California Historic Landmark, however despite being eligible it is not on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the Gingerbread Mansion is most used as a wedding and special occasion venue, honeymoon destination, and vacation destination (http://gingerbread-mansion.com/).
The mansion is currently valued at upwards of $1,520,000.
Google Earth Project – Placer County Mines and Mining Culture:
This project used Google Street View to examine the ways that gold mining in Placer County has altered the landscape, and compare that with images of gold-mining history/museums/historical artifacts that are the county’s claim to fame.
Working with the Earth Project – Cycles of Life:
Tree In Grass Life And Death Cycle
Traditionally, nature photography depicts what the photographer believes is beautiful and sublime, leaving out the more “real” aspects of a landscape (such as telephone poles or road signs). The “here today, gone tomorrow” work of artists like Tony Plant (sand art) feels more honest than the traditional landscape. Each of these artists is purposely altering a landscape with the intention or understanding that their work will not permanently disrupt what is “natural” or change the land forever. I made an effort to recreate this effect in my own work, rearranging items found on site that were already a part of the environment in an effort to make something beautiful and impermanent.
The Divide
