Beautiful Decay: Introduction

abandoned medical building on hill in chagrin falls

Once in a while, a man-made structure is left to rest; becoming just another one of natures many manikins to stylize, and destroy however it pleases. The structures become a victim, like a marionette to natures decay. The earth and its elements blend together in the destruction and beautifying of these areas left to rot. A scorched barn, flooded apartments, a factory filled with decay; walls covered in peeling paint pulled up to reveal another color underneath, as if nature has painted its own mural through texture and ruination.

Why were these places vacated? And why are they left to sit, uncared for? The remains of a persons bedroom; bed still intact, covered in a layer of mold and dust. Walls surround it with cracked complexions and vivid, yet transparent voices telling a story of time. Living through the history of abandonments as you explore what once was a whole different scene; now transformed into a desolate, yet incredible, and stimulating image of complex patterns and great detail.

Examining these details, studying and reflecting on them. In conclusion, coming together with a story in the end; that is urban exploration.

Upon entrance to the large warehouse, a calming feel, and natural aura of water damaged floors fills the air around you. Dismantled ceilings above you, while miscellaneous objects cover the floor of the room in which you stand. You are surrounded by a screaming silence through the stale air, standing underneath the rafters, and a roof filled with holes. You are enclosed by walls covered in the graffiti of street artists who have previously been through. You are immersed into a whole new world of imagery within your own street corners; or open fields. A whole new vision of art, created on our Earths very own canvas; painted by mother nature, and time itself.

The earth will start to consume the wooden foundation of a home left on its surface, swallowing floors in large pieces; bite, by bite. Shattered windows create patterns of light, and strange shapes through the open holes in combination with dust floating through the air, sailing the silence of a sunset, and hovering through the beams to create a physical image of the path of light itself. Fogged fragments remain in place where they have not been knocked free from their frames; now a picturesque frame in itself. Moss, ivy, and even trees begin to grow in the lonely space that used to be a families kitchen; where mother would make breakfast every morning, dressed to start her day in the 1920s’. And now, nearly 100 years has gone by. Her kettle, still in the same position as it was when they left; untouched by human, only altered by nature in a beautiful, and aesthetic way.

Nature will always take its course over our man-made arrangement of architecture. It will regain its space, and incorporate our forgotten structures into part of its natural, artistic being; leaving a framework of our creations and creating an abstract representation of what once was. Our trash becomes the Earths muse to take over and create. What nature produces, then becomes the muse of those intrigued by urban exploration.

A prismatic view; refined by the aesthetic merging of natures rapacious, and unforgiving beauty with our architectural craft. An alluring image of how the Earth will always take back what once belonged to it. Images like this pull both the viewer, but more literally the explorer in.

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