abandoned places and urban ruins

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Not by me or anyone I know, but for some reason these photos are just thrilling to look at and since I discovered them I've been a bit obsessed with them--great way to relieve stress! Hundreds of simply gorgeous photo essays abandoned asylums, hospitals, "training schools," amusement parks, arsenals, beer breweries, etc. at locations all over the world.

I can't even imagine how horrific these places would have been when they were in use, but now that they've been empty for years they don't strike me as frightening--some of them are a bit sad, maybe. I've always loved exploring abandoned places. Without people, the only thing that scares me about them is the risk of falling through a rotten floor or getting caught by security.

I think the photographer himself says it best on the "About" page: "Once a building no longer serves its purpose, and all of its previous functionality ceases to exist, it becomes truly fascinating. Each room is transforming into something new at its own rate, yielding to water, ice, wind and gravity as they reclaim this man-made space. The corrosion and decay paint vibrant colors across otherwise dull surfaces, lit only by natural sunlight spilling into rooms at unaccustomed angles. Each object left behind becomes more significant than it has ever been, hinting at the life prior to its disuse. Moldy folders full of psychiatric evaluations hold clinical analyses regarding a patient's drawings in a dripping wet basement with no light. An opaque pair of square-rimmed glasses sit upon a dark grid at the power station control room. A dusty pile of papers hastily stapled together documents a tuberculosis patients life at the hospital, from admission, to death, to autopsy, to burial. Floors collapse and walls cave in without care; if you get hurt, no one is here to help you. This is a lonesome alien world whose dark corners and peeling walls have gotten a hold of me and many others; this affinity for derelict structures and often dangerous excitement is the core essence of exploring that drives me to photograph these spaces."

Anyway, I was thrilled to stumble upon this website and it has become a great source of joy to me, so I wanted to share: http://www.opacity.us/locations/

A website about something similar, but not on the same continent :
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddo ... pter1.html

Pictures about a travel through the wasteland leaved by the Chernobyl incident, especially the Prypiyat ghost-town.

I live close to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Żarnowiec_Nuclear_Power_Plant
I spent holidays there, when I was child And I often go there for mushrooms and listen to Industrie.

Many people come there and take photos, here are some:
http://www.opuszczone.net/?p=438

I have some photos of Bunkers and Railway, I have to upload them.

I find them fascinating too.
The neighboring city of Durham has its big share of abandoned buildings. One is the nationally-known Lucky Strike cigarette factory that was shut down for decades and left to rot. After years of redevelopment it has been given a new life as the American Tobacco Plaza of Durham, where restaurants, bars, offices, small shops and the like fill in the once-deserted factory floors.
Next-door to the factory was the Heart of Durham hotel, built in the 60's as a hotel and restaurant, with a small touch of the then-popular Googie architecture. It was deserted in the mid-90's and was left to rot with the rest of the buildings along the street. It was eventually demolished in 2007 and a brand new bus transit station took its place.
Somebody already took photos of the old hotel before being demolished luckily: http://www.flickr.com/photos/invalid_wa ... 085762269/

I always particularly found the abandoned Googie-style buildings the most interesting. The dynamic neon colors and futuristic shapes crumbling and losing color as a reminder of an optimistic future long forgotten.

OOOO, thx! I have a ghost town osession! Very interesting XD

Thanks for the great links!

I'm glad there are people who find these places fascinating enough to make the treks out to photograph them. So many important pieces of history rotting away.

I wish I had made it out to photograph the Six Flags in New Orleans before they started cleaning it up. It's been empty since it flooded during Katrina, but they only recently began to clean it up.

Here is a website that I find facinating about abandoned buildings in St Loius, Missouri. When ever I go down there, for me personally the decay is part of the mystique of the city.

http://www.builtstlouis.net/