The Fall of the Manufacture / 2009

series of 15 photos 49 x 49 cm (c-print on aluminium) & 49 x 107 cm (lambda print on aluminium)

The series Fall of the Manufacture portraits a partly abandoned Textile Factory Krenholm in Narva, the border city between Estonia and Russia.

Krenholm Manufacture was established in 1857 by baron Ludwig Knoop. The main production fields of the factory were spinning of linen, as well as weaving and rendering of textile.

In addition to the production buildings the factory complex included following facilities: worker’s barracks; shops; a sauna; a day nursery and a hospital. Since there were a considerable number of under-aged and illiteral employees, the factory also owned a two-grade school.

With it’s 40 000 workers Krenholm was one of the largest textile factories in Sovjet Union. It was privatized in 1994 and since then it has reduced it’s fields of operation by degrees.

Today the large factory complex standing almost unused embodies the fall of the industrial age.