Crossing the bridge as you drive into Claremont NH on route 103, if you glance to your right across the waters of the Sugar River, you will notice something quite rare in the 21st century - a working paper mill. Largely displaced by paperless digital media, demand for paper has plummeted as much as 90% in some sectors of the paper industry, and the number of working paper mills in the U.S. has declined sharply since its peak in the early 20th century.
And yet there are some holdouts.
The APC Paper Company (purchased in 2021 by ProAmpac) that runs the Sugar River Mill, stays relevant by pursuing a very 21st century business model - paper recycling. Where once the raw materials for a mill like this would have been lumber and its byproducts, today the APC mill is turning old paper into new.
You might be thinking that this location doesn’t really fit a project whose goal is to photograph the abandoned and post-industrial spaces of New England. The APC paper mill is however a post-industrial space in its own right, being as it is, a legacy of the old Monadnock Mills whose construction along the Sugar River was started in the 1830s by the Sugar River Manufacturing Company. Part of those original mills still survive on the North side of the river, but much of the original complex has been repurposed, including the APC mill that stands on Sullivan Street.
Although this mill does not need to draw its power from the river as was the case in previous centuries, the paper production process does require a great deal of water, which is used primarily in the manufacture of wood pulp, and for heat transfer. Even today, in this age of electricity and cost-effective transportation, the benefits of locating your manufacturing facility on a river have not entirely disappeared.
There is a beauty to the aesthetic of an industrial landscape that to me, is every bit as compelling as a natural scene. As a resident of New England I am fascinated with the region’s industrial past and the legacy that this has left on the landscape. I am always chasing the kind of light that can amplify the emotion expressed by a particular scene, and this often means shooting in less than wonderful weather. On the day I captured the opening image of the paper mill from the Sugar River bridge, the late fall landscape and cold, damp, and overcast conditions, all came together to create the kind of color palette and lighting that I feel lends that image the look of a painting by the Dutch Masters.
Using the link below, you can browse a curated set of images from the APC Paper Mill shoot in a gallery at my website, from which you can purchase photographic artwork in multiple formats. If this work resonates with you and you haven’t already done so, please consider subscribing to get future project updates.
© Gordon Webster
