Gold Hill

Grey Gold

From the outside you would never imagine the vastness of this space. In such an industrial environment, there is natural movement and life in the free flowing streams, mosy patches inbetween piles of stones, and passionate hardworking people. The layers on layers of old machinery even though rough have their own beauty, and at all hours of the day cast their own harsh shadows across the grounds to add character. Who would’ve known that a one of a kind product comes from a one of a kind factory that nobody has really known even existed.

I was lucky enough to one day stumble across this amazing unique place, and from the moment I saw the factory I knew I needed to go photograph it. The first time I stepped foot inside the Carolina Stalite factory it was definitely an eye opener because of how large scale it was with all the different layers of buildings and machines. One of the most interesting things for me about the factory is that it feels like a completely different world in there, with all the old and dusty buildings, streams flowing through rocks, and random patches of grass and moss.

With this project, I wanted to showcase the fact that even though the town of Gold Hill was once a gold mining town, the tradition has not died, but just adapted and evolved into something new. Now the town of Gold Hill has a new product which is light weight aggregate, aka “Grey Gold”. As a photographer, the Carolina Stalite factory is a playground of light and shadow that allowed me to create and bring a whole new perspective to this almost foreign place that was once unknown.