I Photographed An Abandoned Animal Testing Facility

About 5 years ago the last employees that worked here left. The company was bought by a Swiss giant in the industry and they decided to move the facility. The site this facility was built on was rented and the new owners did not renew the contract. That caused the buildings to become derelict since there was no actual owner anymore. The land is partly poisoned and was not getting cleansed anytime soon.

A year or two after the facility closed a fire emerged. The fire caused an acrid smell in the area. Firefighters were soon on the site and found evidence that the fire was most certainly deliberately started. Luckily enough they managed to secure the fire pretty fast due to their early arrival. They had to check the complete building since rumour was spreading the building was occupied by refugees. Local residents also repeatedly called the police because they had seen kids wandering around. Serious damage or accidents were prevented.

This chemical site was enormous. I only found one of the buildings on the site interesting enough to photograph though. It’s where they used to have their animal testing facility. A lot of stuff was still there. I found an autopsy or operating table, medical equipment, lamps, an autoclave and even a ‘glove box’ (the orange box). There was a lot of glass and other debris lying around. It’s hard to imagine but this was probably caused by kids playing here and for example throwing rocks through the windows. I had to be careful where I put my feet.

I started shooting in the room with the autopsy table, while my friend went to explore the rest of the building. This room I was shooting was the only one I was aware of that existed in the building. Everything I found was a surprise. The cages were one of the last things I photographed. It was a hard shot to take because it was very dark and narrow.

The mood inside of this building was dreary. While processing the photos at home I try to feel what I was feeling when taking the photo. This usually reflects in my processing. That’s most likely why this is a rather dark set with not a lot of color in it, while I usually process images rather bright and colourful. Next to that I also decided to process single RAW images.

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