New York City-based photographer Ken Bower captured stunning photos of an old, abandoned U.S. Air Force base known as Bluie East Two in Greenland. (Ken Bower)

Greenland has a reputation of being one of the most pristine places in the world, but an old abandoned U.S. Air Force camp located in Ikateq, known as Bluie East Two,sticks out like a sore thumb.

Thousands of fuel barrels litter the countryside surrounding the former military base, which was abandoned in 1947.Photographer Ken Bower recently discovered the sitewhile doing research and talking to people who had been in the region, capturing many shots of the ruins, which have yet to be cleaned up.

A representative for the U.S. Air Force told weather.com that they were in the process of learning more about the situation and would soon issue a statement about the status of the former camp.

"The pollution is quite shocking and I knew I had to get there to photograph it," Bower told weather.com in an email. "Several of my current photo projects also deal with the juxtaposition between pristine environments and industrial remnants...I saw asbestos shingles and pipe insulation a few days into my trip. They are now crumpled piles with the rest of the debris from the collapsed building which once housed the servicemen."

(MORE:A Beautiful Melting World is Captured in Hyperrealistic Detail)Bower said he was primarily concerned with polar bears while he was camping near the abandoned air field, noting that he had a trip wire device around his camping area which would trigger a blank 12 gauge shell if anything crossed it.

While he didn't observe any wildlife in the vicinity, he did hear Arctic fox calling out in the distance.

"The base has been a political issue at times," Bower observed. "While the Army’s Environmental Restoration Program has cleaned up some past and active military installations. To date, there has been no effort to clean up Bluie East Two."

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