ABANDONED BUILDINGS 

Abandoned buildings have captured my imagination since I first got interested in photography. They beg questions. Who lived there? What was their lifestyle? What did they talk about over dinner? Why was it abandoned, forgotten, or left to deteriorate? If the walls could talk, what stories would they tell? 

There is a difference between old buildings and abandoned buildings. There are old buildings that are still being used; then there are old buildings that are vacant. You can tell. They're abandoned. 

Before I photograph any abandoned building, I first study it. If I can, I will walk around it. I do that to get in touch with its essence, history, character, and photographic potential. I spend time waiting for it to "speak" to me. Spending time on this level helps me to get the best image I can of the structure. It helps me to determine which side is its good side; which aspects of it tell the best story.

From a photography and art perspective, I first decide what I am going to photograph--the exterior, the right exterior perspective, which room or rooms, from which angle, wide angle or tight shot, etc. I also determine what exposure will work best for each shot.

So, as you can see, I spend a lot of time studying, analyzing, getting in touch, and feeling the moment before I go "click."

Now, I'm going to share several images of abandoned buildings that grabbed my attention.

I'll start with my most recent one, an image I created just three weeks ago. I was on one of my many day (photo) trips when I came across this old 1920s-looking shack in the woods. It could have easily been a scene from a movie. As I walked up to it, I noticed that several yards behind it was an outhouse--still standing! I got closer to shack and walked around it, trying to find the best angle; the best perspective. I then turned my back to it and walked away, curious to see what it looked liked from a farther distance. To my pleasant surprise, as I walked away, I saw this huge bottle of whiskey. It was empty and sitting on a tree stump. It occurred to me to include the whiskey bottle as part of my composition. 

I took a photo with the bottle on the tree stump. It served as the foreground, with the old shack and outhouse as part of the background. When I opened the image at home and saw it on my computer screen, I thought it would look even more interesting and intriguing if I kept the color on the bottle, but convert everything in the background, and the tree stump, to a black & white image-- a sort of "Then & Now" theme. 

 

I found this near Victor, Colorado. At one time, I bet this was someone's very nice and elaborate living room, judging from the nature theme wallpaper and pronounced fireplace. Somebody got a bit artsy and painted pine trees with a yellow background on the fireplace. You can see a hint of other rooms through the doorway. It was a fairly good size house, for its time.    

This, too, was on the outskirts of Victor, an old mining town. Mining was good for the economy and good for the miners, or at least some miners. Who lived here? Maybe a superintendent at the mine and his family? Very efficient use of space, with a closet under the staircase. Very little is left of what must have been a nice banister that took the residents to the second floor.

The house was in such a weakened state I didn't dare go up to the second floor, for fear of falling through the floor, which happened to me once while photographing on the first floor of an abandoned house! That was scary. Luckily, the solid ground was only two feet below the floor.   

It was around Christmas time when I saw this old house on the prairie. Someone had placed a Christmas bow on the doorway, which added surrealism to the frail structure. Impermanence--someday, this house will not exist. 

This is nothing less than surreal. This house had obviously been abandoned years ago. For some strange reason, there was a vacuum cleaner in front of the house; right by the entrance! It was as if someone had been thinking of doing some spring cleaning, but procrastination set in. The message I heard when I saw this scene was, "It's a little too late for that...."

I would love to get into a time machine and walk into this general store and see local residents buying groceries and sundry items. I found this beauty in far southern Colorado, in the town of San Luis, close to the New Mexico state line. It's the oldest town in Colorado. Early Spanish explorations are evident throughout Colorado--San Luis, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the town of Cortez, Zapata Falls, etc. 

Check out the Coca-Cola sign. The Coca-Cola company has been around since 1886. 

This old house does not exist at all now. I'm glad I photographed it before "progress" took it over. This house stood north of Denver, on 7381 Washington Street. This too must have been an elegant house back in the day. You can see the bay window in the dining room. They left behind the old Victrola in the living room. 

This is one of several images I created of the old then-luxurious Savoy Hotel, Hot Springs, Arkansas, built in 1910. Oh, if the walls could talk.  

And this is the house I grew up in, located about twenty miles west of Lubbock, Texas. Now abandoned. I am its walls, and I will be talking about my life story on Monday, May 23rd, 2022. It will be streamed live via the Garland County Library Facebook page (Hot Springs, Arkansas) at 6:00 pm. (CST). If you miss it, you can find it on Youtube--just search for "Born In A Railroad Boxcar."    

The part of the house to the left of that tree was added by the owner when I was seventeen years old. Prior to that, my parents, me, and my four siblings lived in the other part-- a two-bedroom, one-bath house. Prior to living in this house, we lived in a three-room shotgun house. 

So, go out and search for histories forgotten, in the shape of abandoned buildings. Listen to the walls--they can guide you with your photo-taking. Enjoy.