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Scary Abandoned Building Photography
Jody Gomez, Photographer
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Murrieta | CA | USA | Posted: 2:55 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> Okay, I guess I can only say that I went off on a tangent tonight and instead of editing (like I should have been) I found myself reading an article about how scary filming the movie Session 9 was because of all the 'events' that happened at Danvers State Hospital during filming.
So, I did a little search and found this site about Danvers http://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com which lead me to this amazing website by photographer John Gray http://www.grayphotography.net/gallery Gray did the photography on the Danvers site.
Further search lead me to this site http://www.opacity.us/ who's owner also shoots abandoned buildings. I did a little checking and these two are not the same photographer (the Opacity site is using a pseudonym)
Now I am in no way advocating trespassing or anything illegal, but I had to share these links because the photography just blew me away. Besides totally creeping me out, the images made me want to find some abandoned buildings to photograph myself.
Thoughts anyone?
Jody |
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Doug Steinbock, Photographer
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West Springfield | MA | USA | Posted: 9:10 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> Why are you creeped out by these images? All I saw was old buildings that need to be torn down. I didn't see anything creepy.
What am I missing? |
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Eric Isaacs, Photographer
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 9:59 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> Back in my film days...
I visited a friend in Bangkok quite a few years ago. He had to work all day and I had to find ways to keep busy so I would wander the streets with my camera looking for interesting pictures to make.
Sometime in the 90s, Bangkok underwent a financial disaster leaving various incomplete skyscrapers around the city. I got stupidly adventurous one day and jumped a fence surrounding one such building and spent most of the day making my way as high up as I could. It was quite entertaining!
I had to make my way through the stairwells which had been closed off by various defeatable means. The bottom floor escalator was half filled with water many of the windows were broken or perhaps never installed.
I think I finally made it up 18 floors out of 20-something when I could no longer find a way to ascend.
As I was making my way out I was stopped by an armed security guard. It was a bit scary since he could have easily shot me, taken my camera and no one would have known where to look for me but he just muttered some words in Thai, I muttered back at him in English and he pointed to the fence. I left.
Now I'll have to go searching for those negatives, I don't remember how the pictures turned out but it was a highlight of my trip to Bangkok.
Thanks for the links, sorry for the tangent :-)
EMI |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 10:47 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> Back in my days as a student at RIT, I used to photograph in an old abandoned barn for an entire year. One of our assignments was to shoot the same people at the same location for an entire quarter. I foind this barn and just loved it so I shot my sorosrity sister Robin and her boyfriend Mike there all year (they both came back to our reunion last month-they're now married and we were talking about these photos). I stopped going there after showing up one day and seeing 20 students with view cameras at "my" barn.
When I moved to the NJ Shore in 1986, I started shooting at these old abandoned buildings, mostly at Sandy Hook and Asbury Park. I took many bands and musicians out there for shoots. Many times, I got caught by the local police and told not to come back,but it never stopped me. (I even told my mother one day I may be calling her from jail. She said if I ever do, all she will say was "did you get the shot?" That was all the validation I needed). Looking back at these images 20 years later....I still love them.
Thanks for John Gray's link.
And Doug...being in an old abandoned building CAN be very creepy. Some of the buildings I was in were more than creepy. We went down these stairs and into these tunnels and had no idea what we were going to find.
Sandy Hook:
("Originally discovered by the famous Sea Captain Henry Hudson in the early 1600’s, Sandy Hook remains a beautiful, 1,665-acre barrier peninsula within view of the Manhattan skyline.Throughout history, it has formed a convenient anchorage for ships before proceeding into Upper New York Harbor. The now-defunct Fort Hancock is located at the north end of the peninsula. It is now open to the public. The Sandy Hook Proving Ground was a proving ground used by the United States Army for many years (post-Civil War to 1919, when the facility was moved to Aberdeen, Maryland) and was later the site of a Nike missile defense installation. The Sandy Hook Nike station is one of a very few stations that are still intact. Almost all of the fort's gun batteries are off limits to the public due to their hazardous condition. The exception to this is Battery Gunnison which is being restored by volunteers and also has two M-1900 six-inch cannon installed; the weapons were placed there in 1976. Guided tours give visitors a look at an actual Nike missile, the missile firing platforms, and a radar station (complete with 60's-era computers"). |
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Greg Kahn, Photographer
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Naples | FL | USA | Posted: 11:52 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> I've always enjoyed photos of the old ghost towns at night, lightpainted by Berthold Steinhilber http://www.bertholdsteinhilber.com/ (in The Lightworks / Ghost Towns sections)
His technique is solid and he ends up with some pretty eerie photos. |
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Matthew Sharpe, Student/Intern, Photographer
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University | MS | USA | Posted: 12:12 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> Doug:
I think some people, myself included, have some strange obsession with anything remotely scary - abandoned mental hospitals are high on that list. To me it's a combination of the lighting and color, the defunct state of the buildings and the solitude exhibited in each. Each image immediately makes me think of what went on in that very room many years ago.
I find many of the images similar to run-down, destroyed homes from Katrina - family living rooms, churches, schools - every building and room with countless untold stories. The difference with Katrina is that the images are just plain sad, nothing scary.
Anyone who saw Session 9 or read anything about it will tell you that psychological horrors, especially those involving mental hospitals, are inherently frightening to those who enjoy the adrenaline rush from being scared. Granted, Session 9 was remotely interesting if not boring despite the subject matter.
I can also understand someone not finding anything scary about an abandoned building. I'm just explaining why some of us might. |
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Doug Steinbock, Photographer
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West Springfield | MA | USA | Posted: 1:12 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> I think Hollywood has had it's influences. Silent Hill, etc.
When I went to the link, I expected to see some horrific sights. Since, I dabble in real estate rehab projects, I just saw broken glass, chipping paint, and run down properties.
But, I suppose, folks can be creeped out by just about anything their minds envision. Could be abandoned mental institutions or even clowns. :) |
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William Maner, Photographer
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Biloxi | MS | USA | Posted: 1:48 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> Matthew... I see that you are in University, MS--the home of the Rebels and my alma mater..
You might want to check out these photos of the huge abandoned Sears Crosstown building in Memphis. It's 1.4 million square feet and reportedly the largest building in the southeastern United States.. Here's the link:
http://www.uer.ca/~opheliaism/photo_gallery/12494/
I don't think the places are scary.. It's just the way that the places play on one's mind. Your imagination is what gives the places their appeal, further arousing your curiosity.
You develop a sense of wonderment about these places when they were in their prime--teeming with people.
Some four years ago, I managed to ummm, "trespass" into a closed up housing project where my mom and her brother lived with my grandmother back in the early 40s. The buildings were set to be demolished.
I can't tell you the eerie feeling I had walking around the place, recalling old pictures from my mom's photo album. I couldn't get over how small the place was. The rooms seemed a lot larger in the snapshots taken more than 60 years earlier. It was really a draining experience to run through all the mental images when faced with the cold, hard reality of the abandoned place.
One of my interest is old chain motels such as the Holiday Inns and Howard Johnson's... I collect postcards of older locations. There's a sense of wonderment about the old places.. They used to be on the main road from here to there. Now they sit abandoned in some of the less desirable parts of towns. It's a small statement of how much America has changed within the last 50 years or so.
Change is the one constant in life. It just seems to be faster in today's world than it was 50 years ago. |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 2:57 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> last October, I went with my wife to Springfield, Vermont (the new official home of the Simpsons I might add!) and was amazed at an ancient mill there that looked like industrial Milton's Infernal. Of course, I sneaked around and photographed at all hours of the day, my father in law couldn't understand what the hell I found so fascinating, probably more so that I dragged his ass out of bed at 4am to help me get good light for time exposures with the roaring river below the building.
Needless to say, after seeing the photos, and seeing what light I can capture when it wasn't there for him to see with his own eyes, he has a new appreciation for what I do (by golly it IS a career) and I think he sees the factory in a whole new...
light |
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Kevin Johnston, Photographer
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Oden | MI | USA | Posted: 3:11 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> I recently had the chance to photograph the living and dormitory quarters area of an old native american boarding school. I tried to picture myself as a young child who was placed there without understanding why.
Given the alledged abuses that took place there it was very eerie after a while.
When I look at images like the ones from the mental hospitals I find them to be eerie not because of the buildings themselves but more because of the things that might have gone on there. |
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Chad Clark, Photographer, Assistant
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South Jordan | UT | USA | Posted: 3:34 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> It's a ton of fun going in these places, almost like working in a dark room (because I shoot at night, and I walk around in the dark). I find it very peaceful.
Although once when I was in this place: http://www.flickr.com/photos/csclarkphoto/459517645/in/set-7215760007788634.../ a bird flew in the house and scared the livin' daylights out of me! My little brother was with me and he couldn't stop laughing.
I'm actually trying to research and document some of the places around here in Utah. |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 5:42 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> http://www.whshistory.com/index.html
The Waverly Hills sanatorium is one of the local spooky places. It was a former TB ward where lots of people died from the disease (or in those days - the treatment). These days they're doing a restoration of the structure, and "ghost hunters" have an annual spooky tour event up there around Halloween. They'll camp out and invite people up there in the middle of the night.
I went there once on assignment. It had a creepy vibe to it...but I'm pretty sure it was just because I'd heard all of the hype before going up there. If I'd gone up there and didn't know what it was or any of the lore behind it, I probably wouldn't have thought anything about it. |
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Jody Gomez, Photographer
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Murrieta | CA | USA | Posted: 12:32 PM on 12.03.07 |
->> Everyone who commented on the overall vibe of the buildings because of the things that may have happened in them articulated why I got the creeps while looking at the images because I imagined the buildings in their heyday. I could easily visualize what must have happened there, how the residents felt, or what they heard, etc. It was great fun!
Imagination aside, I found many of the images to be haunting and fascinating and I was mesmerized by the photographers' ability to create beauty out of urban blight, and I thought they were perfect examples of how one can use light and composition to make works of art out of something that is at best considered urban decay.
Jody
PS. Thanks to all who emailed me with tips of local abandoned buildings that I can explore. I plan to definitely get out there and try my eye at these places!
:~) |
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Paul Alesse, Photographer
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Centereach | NY | USA | Posted: 6:34 PM on 12.03.07 |
| ->> Jody... if you want to come over and shoot a creepy house, my door is open. I get creeped out everytime I lay my gear out on the floor preparing for a shoot. |
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Mitchell Clinton, Photographer
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Carlsbad | CA | USA | Posted: 6:38 PM on 12.03.07 |
| ->> How did they get those photos of my apartment???? |
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Alan Stewart, Photographer
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Corydon | IN | USA | Posted: 12:05 AM on 12.04.07 |
| ->> I'll second the Waverly Hills comment. That place just ain't right. |
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