IDLE FRONTIER is a collection of large-format alternative photographic prints by Bradley Verhelle. The project explores historical, contemporary, and personal accounts of the land the Seneca Army Depot once stood on in a story that stretches from before the 1940s to the present and beyond. The frontier is often described as the edge between the known and unknown, but despite the site’s long history of disposession, the Army Depot has regressed back into the realm of the unknown and the undiscovered.

 

IDLE FRONTIER started as an investigation of a 10,587 acre site; a site I would pass almost weekly on my drive home up Route 96-A. At dusk, the white deer come out, looking through the still air and rusted barbed-wire fence. Most of my memories of the Army Depot are shrouded in mystery. Uncovering that mystery revealed how familiar and prolific these sites are. The Depot doesn’t end at its fenced-borders. The Lehigh Valley Railroad, was an important piece of infrastructure in determining where the Army Depot should be constructed, later playing a crucial role in operations and munitions shippment to and within the depot. The railroad is part of a long network running from New York, NY and Allentown, PA through Ithaca, NY, Mendon, NY, and beyond. It makes up the same rail-trail I would bike into town on as a child.

 

I coordinated with the Seneca County Historian, Pamela Becker, to learn about the many land-disposessions of Seneca County and the accesability, then and now, of the Depot. Hundreds of acres were taken from New York residents, many of whom were farmers, when the Depot was first constructed. Many were required to relocate, some in as little as three days. Accounts by the Environmental Protection Agency describe the contemporary effects of PFAs and other forever-chemicals left over from the war effort, which continue to plague the local groundwater, fish, and soil.

 

With each site visit, I ventured deeper into the depot, past fences, into bunkers, and across the watchful gaze of the native white deer. The Seneca Army Depot, is a relic of a war which scarcely reached its soil. Today, it stands as a fetishistic monument to war and loss of life—a slow-healing wound stretching across Seneca County.

 

Each print was produced in a darkroom using a combination of the Vandyke Brown and Gum Dichromate processes. Developed one layer at a time, silver and pigments stain and adhere to the paper. Over time, the color-image, beginning on a handheld sheet of film, is reborn. The scale of the prints, which embodies the stillness of the idle frontier, is unusual for photographs printed using these methods.

 

In addition to this installation is an exhibit of the same name at Cornell University’s Olin Library. The cases contain books, maps, and other research material which supported the ideation and production of images for this installation. I encourage those who have an interest in the site’s history to visit the Library installation.