Abandoned places

[Bryce]

And the rest-
I'd note that I had no business being there... When I arrived at the mill building, I hopped out of the car and started shooting the building. Soon I realized I was not alone- there were two men in the building. Eventually, I entered the building and asked if they minded me taking a few pictures. Well it turned out they weren't supposed to be there either- they were stealing copper wiring out of the place! Anyhow, after explaining what I was up to they kind of accepted my presence as long as I didn't include them in the images...
Also, this was a uranium mine, reclaimed and cleaned up. I can say that as far as I could tell they had done an impressive job- I took a radiation counter with me (see avatar) and the highest count I got anywhere on the site was about 30% more than in my front yard!

 

[Bryce]

Er, looks like I missed one...

 

[Ash]

It's a pity most ancient ruins look like tourist photo's. I really enjoy Greece/Italy and would love to travel the world simply for the dead cities. I find a strange feeling creeps up when visiting those places. an emptiness, and that's what draws me to such things. It's difficult to create an image that captures the feeling, however

 

[Joao]

Welcome / Bemvindo to the Forum João!

Um Abraço

Thanks. I will be looking around until I get more familiar with the rules & usages in this forum.
Abraço
Joao

 

[Joao]

Joao-
Here's a good one-
http://oboylephoto.com/ruins/index.htm
quote]

Thank you Brian, for the excellent link and the superb photos. I fully understand your toughts - you're not alone!
Regards

 

[Bryce]

Joao-
(quote)- Thank you Brian, for the excellent link and the superb photos. I fully understand your toughts - you're not alone!
Regards

So I found out as I started shooting ruins. I've been shocked that it's as popular as it is!
Let's both keep doing it, shall we?

 

[Bryce]

Here are some of my underground images. I think these have all been posted before.... Anyhow, I've decided not to treat individual mines as series of themselves; I usually get only one to four images per mine. So I treat them as a series. These are all within Washington State. There are lots more, they just don't tend to get digitized right away. My workflow is completely analog.

 

[rpsawin]

It's a reminder that all things "new" and "cutting edge" will eventually be discarded on the junkpile or abandonded in favor of the current "new, cutting edge" whatever. I like to think about what the object meant in its' time and how it affected the lives of those it touched.

Bob

 

[amateriat]

Among other projects/obsessions, I've been working on the railroad – so to speak – for the last 25-odd years, following both activity and decline along the main line and beyond, it having been the original "superhighway" of the nation, and probably the most visually iconic, which is why so many other photographers have found it such ripe subject matter, and it hasn't ceased to intrigue me. Furthermore, I remember when these places and machines were thriving (more or less), so this isn't mere nostlalgia for something I knew nothing about. It's a bit of an archeological dig into my own memory bank, a re-exploration of what I knew, or thought I knew.

These images are a pastiche of a much larger body of work I've been tweaking away at for way too long, hopefully to be en exhibit or book some time before I shuffle off this here mortal coil.


- Barrett

 

[Bryce]

Barrett-
You're documenting the history of the railroad, and its decline. If that's what's happening. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have been shooting old chainsaw shops, you know, logging supply stores? A sad commentary- just as I find and shoot them, they seem to go out of business, as though they had been holding on for me to find them, and once I have, they finally go under.
Nice images!

 

[rogue_designer]

It seems to me that the photographer - more than any other artist - is attracted to / inspired by abandoned places. Why would that be?

I would surmise that it has much to do with the documentary roots of alot of photography. No other medium is quite to well suited to preservation.

That - or they're just cool locations, and we rock in general.

 

[amateriat]

Barrett-
You're documenting the history of the railroad, and its decline. If that's what's happening. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have been shooting old chainsaw shops, you know, logging supply stores? A sad commentary- just as I find and shoot them, they seem to go out of business, as though they had been holding on for me to find them, and once I have, they finally go under.
Nice images!

Funny how sometimes, I've had a similar experience. 😉

You have some strong images there, and of something I'd never know about otherwise, which brings up another matter: one should never worry about whether a subject has "been done" (i.e. done to death). When I started following the rails where I found them interesting, I wondered if people might be bored to tears with the subject matter, in spite of my thinking (as most anyone who first picks up a camera has to feel, if only at the outset), that I had something a little different to bring to the party, so to speak. Perhaps I needn't have worried, since I've gotten a reasonable amount of feedback from people who seemed to like the work...although, knowing me, I'd have plowed on regardless. 😉


- Barrett

 

[Bryce]

Barrett-
Plow forth! I know I've been surprised how positive the feedback has been with my photos. I went into this thinking these images were not for everyone, that maybe one person in a hundred would bear them a second glance; not so, it seems. I'm a hairs breadth from a gallery show... Feels good, and if they sell, it'll feel REALLY good. I just hope my superstition about somehow destroying the things I shoot really is just superstition.

 

[amateriat]

Barrett-
Plow forth! I know I've been surprised how positive the feedback has been with my photos. I went into this thinking these images were not for everyone, that maybe one person in a hundred would bear them a second glance; not so, it seems. I'm a hairs breadth from a gallery show... Feels good, and if they sell, it'll feel REALLY good. I just hope my superstition about somehow destroying the things I shoot really is just superstition.

Good luck with that – I think they will get attentaion and sell. (Working on that here as well.) As far as your superstition goes, I wouldn't worry, but nevertheless I'll steal a line from an Ian Tyson song: "Get it all down, 'cause she's bound to go."


- Barrett

 

[Bryce]

Barrett-
That's become my feeling. It pushes me on. If I'm aware of a site I want to shoot, I get on with it for fear it'll go away.
Thanks for the encouragement. May we both be successful!