There’s a side to my photography that I haven’t nurtured for a while, and sometimes I get a powerful desire to do it. It’s shooting some of the gritty, dirty, dark side of life.
I first discovered my passion for photographing abandoned places in the late 1990s, finding that I enjoyed taking pictures of broken, decaying landscapes and the human detritus that they contain.
What is it that attracts me and to these lonely, discarded places? It’s the messy, gritty human patterns that are left behind when people leave a place. People lived there, worked there, played there, laughed and cried there, and had friends and families there. And when I explore these places, it’s like discovering people’s lives by viewing the things they left behind. Remember the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith as the last man alive on earth, surrounded by human leftovers? It’s like that.
Several years ago I visited an abandoned medical facility in the middle of a very hot summer day. The place had a variety of purposes over its lifetime, including time as a typhoid hospital and then a mental hospital. It was, by far, the creepiest building I have ever been in. Kids had obviously been there many times to hang out and, after several beers, began to slowly destroy the place from the inside.
When I visited I found the most amazing signs of life in the buildings that made up this facility: old beds that had once comforted people in their illnesses; old patient tags; examination rooms for the doctors and their patients; community rooms. Shooting these rooms was fascinating, energizing and exciting.
After spending a bit of time in the patient rooms and offices on the first and second floors, I found a stairwell that went down to the basement. Yes. It was dark. And, no, there was no electricity in the place. Good thing I brought my flashlight.
I paused at the top of the stairwell, and I debated with myself whether I should go down into the dark. As I often do, I decided to explore, but with caution. My Spidey senses were turned up, keeping me aware of any problems that might crop up—from weakened stairs, to excessive dust, critters, or even other people. Using my flashlight as a guide, I moved down the stairs and into the half-finished basement space, exploring rooms with boilers and equipment that I did not recognize.
After about 15 minutes of exploration, I decided that I did not want to go too deep into the basement. It was cool and damp, and the air felt good, but if something unexpected happened I would be in a bad spot. So after a few shots with a flash and a bit of light painting with my flashlight, I went back to the hot rooms upstairs to finish my tour and grab my last photos.
Ultimately, shooting in abandoned buildings is potentially dangerous, and I don’t approach it lightly. I move through a place slowly, and I always have a plan. Some of my best photos come from places like this. They can be stark, eye opening, and disturbing, but they are always fascinating. I’ve sworn off of photographing abandoned places a couple of times, but each time I’ve been lured back to a new location. It’s been several years since I’ve explored an abandoned place. There’s always the chance that I’ll do it again if the right situation presents itself and the desire comes back.
