Abandoned Places Entirely Overtaken by Nature
I’ve experienced some interesting things over the years I have spent photographing abandoned, or historic places. I’ve had the opportunity to photograph world famous boxer Mike Tyson’s former home. I’ve wandered the halls of some of the country’s largest and oldest insane asylums that hold some of the darkest histories. I’ve visited the interesting town of Spectre from the film Big Fish (yes, it does exist.) I’ve wandered the halls and field of one of the country’s largest football stadiums ever built. But among all of the things I have captured, and continue to capture, some of my favorite scenes will always be those where nature has invited itself into or onto a structure, taking it over entirely.
Imagine one of the places I had mentioned above. Imagine it in its prime of life, the way you would normally see it. Now fast forward and flip to an alternate reality, and we have carpet replaced by moss, and ivy hugging tightly to window panes until finally bursting through the glass, winding throughout rooms. We all visit restaurants and diners, gas stations, stadiums, hospitals and clinics, schools and more. But how often is it that we visit one of those places, and find a tree growing through the table?
The contrast between life and death shown through something as simple as the living room inside of an abandoned home; I think that’s what draws me to scenes like this. There’s that old saying “you have to be able to find the light in the darkness,” or whatever other hundreds of variations you can come up with for it. I know, it’s an overused and cliche phrase at this point, but I’ve always enjoyed heavy contrasts in art, and this is probably one of the better sayings to describe that exact type of contrast. Then you have that whole “one man’s trash in another man’s treasure.” Well, that one man’s (or woman’s) trash became worn down, decrepit and dark, but years later, that darkness is now being beautifully contrasted by brightness of nature making its way into a place that it would not normally be seen. That’s what I find so interesting about it. Someone just left something to rot, but nature came in, and created a beautiful work of art from it. Nature paints the most beautiful pictures.
I wanted to share some of my favorite examples of this that I have photographed:
- Abandoned Overgrown Asylum
Wonderful.
The contrasts are amazing! Elements against elements! Wood fighting to stay up with live wood and leave pushing in to take over or reclaim space. You have definitely seen some amazing things. The old abandoned school and mall I find particularly interesting. I wonder what people though would happen to them!
Where I live in Maine, people try to take every old building and re-purpose it into something: housing, small business, community centers etc…!
So cool!
These are so beautiful! I especially love the snow in the school room. What a treasure to find. It makes the imagination go wild to think what will happen post-humans.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful collection .
Some of them gave me a familiar, yet eerie feeling. I found that very interesting!
Wow! I love those kind of places too. It always makes me feel something so pleasantly eerie. That’s probably the only way I could explain it. It makes me wonder and dream about all of the stories that those broken walls and grown plants would’ve seen.. <3
And I don’t have to mention, your photographs are sooooo good! 💕
Amazing.
Like the human body–beautiful in its time, but dust to dust…
very nice
Wonderful! That ferris wheel is really amazing – great photographs! There’s something really comforting about nature carrying on, covering up, reminding us no matter what mistakes we make, or however much we fear we’ve ruined everything, we’re really just an epoch.
Amazing!! Who knew something abandoned could be so wonderful!
The pictures feed the mind and we dare to dream of what has been or might have been.
These photos are amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Hey Johnny, I love and shoot abandoned places as well, so I can say you found an interesting place 😎😉
This is incredible. All your photos are stunning. I love photographing abandoned places and you manage to capture the beauty in these rejected areas
Love the glass corridor and the snow-filled classroom. Definitely ripe for metaphor. Gives me the same feeling as the moment in Planet of the Apes when Charleton Heston discovers the Statue of liberty, buried in sand. Mortality. Futility. The triumph of Nature. Keep up the good work!