Photo tour LOST PLACES & The RUHR Area

After your individual arrival at the Zollverein Coal Mine and Coking Plant UNESCO World Heritage Site in Essen, we will welcome you with a warm Glück Auf! at the Boutique Hotel Friends. In the late afternoon, we will meet for the introductory workshop of our exciting photo tour through the Ruhr area, focusing on lost place photography. After discussing the photographic techniques that we will use during our tour through the Ruhr metropolis, we will have the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better during our welcome dinner. In an original industrial ambience, we will enjoy sophisticated "Ruhrpott" cuisine at Zollverein before we start our photo adventure. Tonight we will photograph the red-lit avenue of fire at the Zollverein coking plant at the blue hour and under the stars.
 

This morning, the disused Zollverein coking plant invites us on a photographic tour. We will experience and photograph the rusty ovens of the approximately 1 km long coke oven plant, in which 8,000 tons of coke were produced daily until 1993. In the early afternoon, a top-class lost place photo shoot awaits us. In a wooded area south of the Ruhr area, we come across a bizarre collection of vintage cars that have fallen into disrepair in harmony with nature. The classic cars are lying under trees, eaten away by rust with broken windows. The morbid and fascinating charm of the place allows us to take impressive wide-angle and detailed shots of the classic cars. In the late afternoon, we set off for a very special slag heap, home to the world's only walkable roller coaster. We photograph the impressive large sculpture from sunset until dark. When night falls, the roller coaster will be illuminated by LED lighting, allowing us to compose unique, artistic night photographs.

Today starts once again with a top-class lost place photo shoot. With a special photo permit, we will have a look behind the scenes of the Zollverein coking plant. We will enter the avenue of fire, where 304 coke ovens stretch over a length of 1 km. We will then walk through the conveyor bridges, through which the coal was once transported, up to the coal tower, from where we will have a gigantic view over the entire plant. In the afternoon, we visit one of the largest lost place collieries in the Ruhr region. Here we receive a special photo permit to document the impressive shaft hall from the inside during its natural decay. The entire conveyor system has been preserved, allowing us to discover many exciting perspectives of symmetry and asymmetry. After we have explored the hall on several levels, we capture more great lost place motifs with our camera during a photo walk across the site. As a grand finale, we will climb a viewpoint from which we will photograph the colliery and especially its two prominent winding towers during sunset. Optionally, we can then visit another abandoned colliery, which is only 15 minutes away and is illuminated in a very special style at nightfall. The 64 meter high winding tower represents the last development phase of rope support structures of the 1950s. The white lighting along the edges of the welded box construction allows fascinating minimalist and futuristic night shots.

After breakfast, we set off to explore a very special lost place photographically. Another of the best-preserved lost place collieries in the Ruhr region awaits us, which only a few photographers have been allowed to enter so far. With a special photo permit, we explore an old machine center in which two original winding machines have been preserved. The original condition of the plant, which has been left to decay naturally without vandalism, is very impressive. After we have visited the shaft hall, which is not open to the public, we have the opportunity to explore the outside area during a mine walk in the afternoon. Here you can discover many interesting perspectives around the two cast-iron winding towers that form the town's landmark. This evening is free. There is the opportunity to sit together in a convivial atmosphere or those who wish can explore the Zollverein colliery at night on their own. Here, the winding tower above Shaft XII and the escalator leading to the coal washing plant and today's Ruhr Museum are illuminated at night in red-orange light.

Another highlight of our Lost Place photo tour awaits us today, as we follow in the footsteps of the “miners” and photograph an originally preserved mine in the company of a former miner. While we will be the only visitors underground, we will experience first-hand how coal mining was carried out in Germany until December 31, 2018. The mining tunnels of the abandoned mine, which lie directly below the earth's surface, give you the feeling of being 1000 m deep in the ground. The typical smell of the mine and the cross-sections with their original working machines are unique in Germany. After a relaxing break in the afternoon, we continue our photographic journey to photograph thyssenkrupp's last intact coking plant from the banks of the Rhine in Duisburg during the blue hour. At regular intervals, glowing coke is cooled down with water in the quenching towers, so that we can create impressive panoramic images with the cloud of water vapor rising into the sky and the plant reflected in the Rhine at the same time.

This morning we visit a lost place coking plant that was once one of the largest in the Ruhr area. A unique machine hall awaits us here, which resembles a movie set. It is equipped with five huge DEMAG compressors, which were in operation from 1920 until the coking plant was closed. In addition to the impressive machines, there are many other details to discover here, such as antique switch fittings and oily gears from times gone by. The site itself is dotted with gigantic rusty coke ovens and pipelines from the industrial age, which are now being re-conquered by nature. We can also create exciting images with our cameras in the former colliery shower building. In the afternoon, our photo tour takes us to another very special abandoned site in the industrial history of the Ruhr region. As the only visitors, we will photographically document a former blast furnace plant, which is not accessible without a special permit. We climb the almost 100-metre-high blast furnace to get gigantic views of the surrounding area and photograph the countless rusty pipes and valves inside the complex. After dinner, another photo highlight awaits us, as the blast furnace plant is illuminated just for us during the blue hour.

Today, to round off our photo tour, we have another long and eventful day ahead of us with a lost place in a class of its own. Before we start our last “Ruhrpott photo adventure”, there will be a workshop on image processing. Here we will focus specifically on the topics of the previous days, such as lost place, sunset and night photography. After lunch, we will drive to the famous Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, where a gigantic disused ironworks awaits us, offering countless motifs for us photographers. During the day, you can take fascinating pictures of the huge blast furnace landscape with all its rusty machine elements. In the evening, colorful lighting transforms the former industrial plant into a fascinating and unique light spectacle. Over dinner in an industrial atmosphere, we toast to the experiences of the last few days and set off for our last joint photo highlight just in time for the blue hour. We will photograph the colorfully illuminated Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord from various perspectives into the night.

After our last adventurous night of photography under the stars, we meet up for a late and extensive breakfast. We review the past few days and have the opportunity to discuss any remaining questions. If you find it difficult to say goodbye to the metropolis of lost places and industrial culture, you can extend your stay in the “coal pot” by a few more beautiful days. I will also be happy to give you tips for other exciting photographic excursions. Glück Auf!