Project 4 - Researching photography of abandoned places

http://emorfes.com/2011/02/10/abandoned-places-photography-by-sven-fennema/

Sven Fennema's photos of abandoned places were among the ones that sparked the premise for this photo project. Although all of my locals are outside (I was unable to break into abandoned, condemned apartment complexes etc), my photo essay remains in the same spirit - to document decay and to show that there is still beauty within.

http://www.nikifeijen.com/

Niki Feijen has an interesting theme here, contrasting old and new technology. This was an idea I was going to implement, but ended up abandoning. The places I found didn't lend themselves to it, and they were amazing in their own right.

http://www.christyhunterphotography.com/f34132521
Christy Hunters photos gave me lots of ideas. The old faded logos in ghost town-like environments were particularly evocative. Once again, I was going to have all my images desaturated, but ended up deciding against it. I found abandoned places with a surprising amount of color, and recalling that was one of the options for the photo project, I ran with it.

Project 4 - Beauty in the Abandoned

Artist Statement

In this photo essay, my intention is to explore and portray the human condition, metaphorically left behind and conveyed by these buildings and structures. I find that these buildings have become much more interesting in their decrepitude than for what they were originally designed. 

Condemned apartment complexes, abandoned warehouses and back-lots, closed businesses, old run down bridges - once bustling with activity and hope for the future. Although most times, right out of frame is a busy city, these images could just as well have portrayed a silent post-apocalyptic world. Everything you see in these images is but a shadow of what it used to be – yet in those shadows, there is hidden beauty. Hidden treasures.  

Little microcosms of textures, flaking, curling, rusting, crumbling,

seeping, ... growing. Trees and vines do not care from what crack or crevice they emerge, nor do they pay mind to the surface to which they attach. Sooner or later, nature and the elements reclaim all, and in that process, sublime and wonderful things happen.

Daniel Wolters

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