abandonment, decay

::see these pictures full-sized on my flickr page::
they're not square--something new and different for me)

So. Urban exploring. My favorite hobby (I don't consider photography a hobby, otherwise that would win. Obvi.) In case you've never heard of urbexing, here's a the lowdown:

Basically, it involves trespassing into creepy decaying buildings and taking photos (not everyone does the photo part--some people just do it for the thrill and to enjoy the natural beauty.) If you're a risk-taker, you don't get creeped out easily, and you're limber enough to crawl through windows/cracks/whatnot, it's a great hobby. Especially for a photographer. The only real issues one could possibly have with it are a) it involves illegal activity (aka trespassing) // b) the community as a whole is incredibly exclusive and absolutely will not share good info with new-comers, so you have to do a whole lot of research to even find a location to shoot, as well as on possible entry-points and related info (more on this later) // and c) if you watch shows like "ghost hunters" and actually get legit terrified--this is not for you. Most of the locations I've shot at have been abandoned state mental institutions, sanitoriums for tuburculosis patients, and industrial sites. Abandoned psychiatric hospitals can get pretty creepy even if you DON'T believe in ghosts, so you've gotta have a pretty thick skin. Also I've been chased by the cops on more than one occasion (and caught once--but they don't really care as long as you're not trying to tag the place or burn it down.)

So there it is.

I listed three of these photos for sale on etsy today:

M.S.H Rm. 193 // Fine Art Print

Staircase to the last Ward // Fine Art Print

Switched Off // Fine Art Print

I already have a few collections up, including the ones i took at the now-defunct polaroid factory. In my opinion those sets are the most 'fine-art'-ish pictures i've ever taken, and also the only one's I've ever had in gallery shows.

I need to find a new location soon--but I'm running out of places in Mass that I haven't been to, or that haven't been torn down. I'm gonna have to start traveling out of state soon. Darn.

Here's the Wikipedia article on Urban Exploration, if you want to know more.

But in all seriousness, some of the most beautiful photographs I've ever seen come from UErs.

'ROID RAGE

Its polaroid week, so since I can't afford the film anymore (which is a shame seeing that I have three of their cameras), I took the opportunity to scan in some very old polaroids that haven't gotten the attention they deserve:



I took this one in 24 hour party London, which, when I went, was full of mods because I squeezed my trip in RIGHT before nu-rave started becoming meta-popular.







There's a Buddhist center near my house. They have colorful flags.



I'm submitting one or two pieces to CMYK magazine's Top 100 New Creatives #48 competition, photography section. I think my urban exploring photographs are interesting enough to maybe get looked at and not just tossed aside. CMYK is all graphic design and contemp. illustration, so they wouldn't look twice at my pretty pastel Tuscany pics.

So I'm submitting something grittier--like this:



On an unrelated note--I submitted this picture of my Dad to "myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com"


My Dad looked like the kind of guy I would hang out with--drinking guiness, playing scrabble, and arguing about Schopenhauer.