I am in my element when I can do a shoot in a derelict building. I love the sense of decay that abandoned places convey. It probably stems from my earlier interest in archaeology and my wanderings among ruined Southeast Asian temples. Or maybe it is influenced by Romantic poetry and Gothic novels in which ruins are a common visual trope.
There is a particular genre of fine art photography which has developed around the idea of a body in a decaying landscape, among ruins and sometimes rubble.
The images are highly evocative and beautifully textured.
Last month
Dazed Digital, the online version of
Dazed and Confused published an interview with photographer Daniel Regan about his
Abandoned project, a series of photographs taken in derelict buildings. I was thrilled to see among the images one taken at an unmistakable place, a disused mental hospital now being turned into luxury flats. I too have shot there, with photographers Jan Murphy and Vernon Trent and later with Neil Huxtable.
Last year I went back there with photographer Marc Wainwright and we could not gain access to the building, the security guard escorted us to the car politely but firmly. So we went to another derelict building in the same area and we shot there. Earlier this year Marc told me that even this building is now out of bounds. That's the problem with these locations, one day they are here, the next they're gone as someone decides to get rid of the decay and build something new.
So these photographs become precious memories, shots taken in places that no longer exist. I should rephrase that. It is not the photograph that is the memory, it is simply a memory trigger.
"I
mages have the capacity to create, interfere with, and trouble the memories we hold as individuals and as a nation. They can lend shape to histories and personal stories, often providing the material evidence on which claims of truth are based, yet they also posses the capacity to capture the unattainable"
Marita Sturken
Photographer: Marc Wainwright
I seem to lack the skill to find such locations. They must exist near me.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, though. As many times as I've seen them, it never gets old. Each derelict building has its own character, much as the model has his or her own.
I keep my eyes open and make a note of them. Very difficult to access in London but outside London it's another story. I love the texture of old stones
ReplyDeleteOver the past few years I've lost a few locations, of course found a few others and it's so sad to lose a location like this! There is an area in the high desert where one of my models grew up that is being lost, they are clearing land for a large solar panel array and in the process moving everyone out. We went there repeatedly last fall to try and capture as much of the place as we could, knowing it would all soon be gone.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite genre's as well Alex. The contrast of rough and smooth, abandoned and alive. . . can't be beat. I shot with Larry of Studio 130 at an old tire store and quanset hut that now does not exist. It is strange to pass that site and know something once stood there where Larry and I created some artwork. Love the images in this post!
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments and for sharing your thoughts. We are all in agreement it seems. Have you joined the Derelict-Nudes group on dA?
ReplyDeleteThere seem to be any number of derelicts in the UK and the eastern US, to judge from your work and that of artists like "MichelleLynn725" from deviantART. (You'd like Michelle! She's fearless about trespassing on derelicts, and she has a wonderfully twisted worldview and great eye for details.) But here in downtown Denver, there aren't many such derelicts. There's the old Gates Rubber plant, which has killed at least one would-be urban adventurer; there's the former University Hospital--but that's only been abandoned for about five years. There may be more derelict houses than I'm seeing at the moment, but I don't see many at all. The developers and city fathers sure don't want derelicts cluttering up the city!
ReplyDeleteHowever, in small towns in the Midwestern US, there are any number of derelicts. The rural and small-town populations have been declining for several decades now, and the "boom and bust" cycles the cities experience have been all bust in the country. I can see the allure of such sites--maybe a portrait of a vanishing lifestyle. "Little Derelict on the Prairie," perhaps...?
I used to live in Savannah, Georgia and that place was a wealth of decayed, decadent architecture. Unfortunately it was also incredibly dangerous too, with the high gang related crime rate. I really need to go scouting around Orlando more. Well, more outside of Orlando, as much of the city inside is fairly populated and lived in.
ReplyDelete