Ione, Oregon
Story and photos by Kristen Cart
An eagerly awaited package arrived in the mail the other day. I opened it to find Bruce and Barbara Selyem’s 2016 elevator calendar–a vivid sampling of the photography work that Bruce has done over the years. Barbara Selyem called me to see if I would like one this year–I am an old customer, and I get one every year. So of course I asked her to send it.
Thirteen carefully selected images grace the calendar, and it does not disappoint.
Indus, Alberta, Canada
Selyem Enterprises also produces framed elevator images for home and business, and if I bought everything I liked, I would run out of wall space very quickly. Bruce has documented many beautiful old wooden elevators in the United States and Canada that have gradually disappeared. Over the 20-plus years Bruce has been shooting elevators, most of the structures have only his photos to remember them by.
Mossleigh, Alberta, Canada
If my kids had anyone to blame for the numerous side trips, excursions, and stops we have made to take pictures of wooden elevators in the wild, Bruce Selyem would top their list. I have studied his website carefully to plan for elevator photography trips in Idaho and Oregon. Many times the kids have admonished me for the odd elevator stop on the way to Nebraska. I can’t help it. They are beautiful.
Though not many of my wooden elevator photos have been published here, there is quite a collection of them. It is a passion, and I come by it honestly.
My grandfather, William Osborn, took many photos when I was a little girl. I remember the bellows on his camera, the camera body he carefully set up on a tripod, and his advice to sit still. He would pull the Polaroid photo out of the back of the camera while he started his buzzing timer. The hand on the timer would move interminably, and I would stand on tip-toe, eagerly awaiting the magic moment. Then he would peel the negative away and voila, a damp image would emerge, which I would hold gingerly by the edges while it dried.
As a girl, I wondered at the photo of his first elevator in McCook, Nebraska, that he built for Mayer-Osborn. I never knew I would combine his love for photography with his life’s work one day, and share all of it here.
To check out the photography of Bruce Selyem, visit his website at grain elevator photos. Bruce and Barbara Selyem welcome you.
A concrete beauty. Nyssa, Oregon
Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators 
If they are in the area,they might want to try out Lake Andes,SD. When I was growing up,some years ago,the elevator was old. All the young children thought it was haunted and we avoided it. Not sure it is still standing.
There are pictures, dated 2001, of old elevators in Lake Andes on their website. You should check them out and see if they are the elevators you remember. There is no telling whether the elevators still stand–it has been a number of years since they were photographed. I would love to hear the ghost stories!