Cooper’s Falls is one of the many ghost towns located within Ontario however, different from our ideas of a ghost town, people still live in the town. Located approximately one hour and 45-minute north of Toronto, you will a town that looks to have been abandoned for years but also a town that still holds much life. Cooper’s Falls is a photographic book series looking at the town’s past, present and future. Through research and interviews, I was able to gather a sense of how the town and its community functioned during its more prosperous times in the early 1900’s.
It is a common that when a town begins to die, its structures and community are forgotten. When looking at abandoned places, I do not see a dead town but a town that once lived. A town that had a history. Cooper’s Falls reveals this history to readers as well as shows how life still exists there. Many may think that once a town is abandoned, everything is gone but this was not the case for Cooper’s Falls. Rather than disappear with the town, residents of the town fight to stay alive, to keep the town’s history alive and to not be forgotten.
Cooper’s Falls is meant to draw attention to the misconceptions of a ghost town. It is meant to show how life still exists beyond the town and if not strong enough, both the town and the residents become forgotten. While structures and items may lay abandoned throughout a ghost town, they represent a town’s more prosperous times; unfortunately, these prosperous times begin to be forgotten the longer a town sits abandoned. This book is meant to keep their history alive.
