Estonian Church – Gleason, WI

Long Exposure Photograph of the old Estonian Church in Gleason, WI. It was December 31, 2012, and we’d had our eyes on lighting an old church in Northern Wisconsin. The temperature was slated to be below zero Fahrenheit. “THUNK!” went the car door, as we fastened our coat buttons as tight as we could to keep the “feels-like-negative-10” away from our still-toasty bodies as long as possible. Into the woods to the Estonian Church we go. Now, this is the kind of remote location where you could hear a mouse eating a scrap of dead grass if you listened hard enough. So you can imagine the ice in my veins when I heard heavy boots walking through the all wooden church floors. We crunched through the snow to survey the back, and yet we saw NO footprints. We circled back to the open door in front to explore the innards of this sagging structure. Not a living soul to be found. I shook off my fear, and we got to work, lighting up the church with any and every color we had in our back pocket (we used an old Vivitar strobe + theatre gels back then!) It was a race against frostbite at this point – nipping away at our fingers and camera technology that prefers at least a balmy 32 degrees. We bid a fond farewell to the church and its figments. The real horror unfolded once we climbed back into the car, flipped on the heater, and seethed in agony as our toes dethawed.

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8″ x 10″ Print will have some cropping. | Print frame not included