Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta

Located in the historic clay district of Medicine Hat, Alberta you'll find the Medalta Potteries National Historic Site. Complete with a museum, market, classroom, studio, gallery, and event space, Medalta is one of southeastern Alberta's most culturally significant landmarks.  

With an ample supply of clay and natural gas, Medicine Hat, Alberta was quickly recognized as an ideal place for brick, tile, stoneware, and pottery production in the early 20th century. The low cost of energy was ideal for firing the kilns, and the high quality of clay in the area proved useful in numerous commercial applications.

In 1912 the Medicine Hat Pottery Company was founded, but it changed hands in 1915 and the factory underwent renovation. Production resumed in 1916 as Medalta Stoneware Ltd. and by 1924 the company had reorganized again, finally becoming Medalta Potteries. The name came from simply combining the abbreviations of Medicine Hat (Med) and Alberta (Alta).

By this time Medalta had been shipping its stoneware crocks, jugs, and bowls all across the country, and by the end of the 1920s they were producing 75% of the pottery in Canada. However, production plummeted after the stock market crash in 1929 and the company struggled to stay afloat. The war effort from 1939-45 revived the industry as imports from Europe and Japan stopped, and the army demanded record amounts of stoneware. Medalta employed a large female workforce during this time, and even employed German POWs from Camp #132.

The end of the 1940s saw Medalta struggle with increased production costs and renewed competition from imports. By 1954 the company officially disbanded, but the history of Medalta has since remained a great source of local pride. Stoneware produced by the company remains highly collectible, and pieces produced for the railways, military, and restaurants are highly sought after. This legacy, and the ceramic arts, are still celebrated at Medalta to this day.

Explore more of Medicine Hat, Alberta's historic clay district here.

Medicine Hat Pottery sometime between 1912 - 1916.

3000 Miles, 4 States, and a Dodge Challenger

The last two weeks marked another incredible travel photography project as I covered over 3000 miles through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico. As the title of this post reveals, it was also made that extra bit sweeter as I covered those miles in a brand new Dodge Challenger.
 

Texas was really the centerpiece of this shoot, so I flew down to Houston to kick things off. Over the two weeks I photographed everything from oilfields in West Texas to an aircraft carrier on the Gulf Coast to the Grassy Knoll in downtown Dallas. The road trip looped into Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico as a way of adding a few more remote shoots into the mix.

Like all my projects, select highlights were featured on the Editing Luke Instagram account as the road trip was ongoing. Of course, you can expect to see complete photo sets as part of my Middle America series appearing here in the near future. In the meantime, here are a few early visual highlights from this latest travel shoot around the Southwest USA.

Spirit of the Canadian Badlands Campaign

As someone who has spent a lot of time capturing, documenting, and sharing iconic visuals all over Alberta, the Canadian Badlands have been a particularly special place to explore for as long as I can remember. Having grown up here, it was a privilege to be part of a travel campaign that allowed me to rediscover, film, photograph, and ultimately showcase some of the amazing people and places of this vast and diverse region.

After two weeks of filming throughout the Canadian Badlands last summer, accompanied by actor Tom Jackson and a handful of other talented creators, I was tasked with creating a series of vignettes and an overall promotional showcase of the experience we had in the Badlands. 
 

What was so great about this project was that we weren't setting out to stage a commercial, but instead allowed the experiences we were having to dictate the direction of the finished work. As a result, the videos are comprised of numerous candid clips and raw moments that were captured while in the midst of meeting new people and being thrown into new experiences.

I think we all have our own definitions / explanations of what we think the 'Spirit of the Canadian Badlands' really is - particularly if like me, you've been surrounded by it for most of your life. Sometimes it just takes a fresh set of eyes to remind us of how amazing our little corner of the planet really is. Explore more of my work around Alberta here.