I have an obsession.
It is not a unique obsession, but my love affair was instantaneous and I know it is a love that will last forever.
I think about it all the time—the cavernous ruins of another time call out to me their sorrow, their joys; their experience. I am obsessed with abandoned structures.
As far back as I can remember I was fascinated by how others lived. I still catch glimpses of people in windows when houses are lit from within and I am out walking or driving or on a train and I forever wonder what the lives are like in there. What are their dreams? What are they worrying about? Who lives there? As a child still learning about the world around me in ever-expanding circles, I was stunned silly with the possibilities. I still wonder about the glimpses I catch from time to time.
Nowadays in abandoned houses in particular, I can really satisfy my voyeuristic urges as there are often clues left behind to what made up the life once there. My imagination runs wild with it. In factories and larger structures I wonder about those who worked there and where they might have lived—what happened to them when they lost their job there.
I find real beauty in the aesthetics of decay. The colors of rust, the light pouring through broken-down walls and roofs, and the shadows cast by curlicues of paint peeling down the walls create tapestries of a life that once was; a history to discover.
Taking self-portraits within these walls is what I do with my obsession. The immediate contrast between the surroundings and my (usually) naked or partially naked self makes me happy.
For me it is about so many different things, many of which I’m still discovering and exploring. Some of these things contradict one another, but I’m learning to accept that I am a person who is full of contradictions.
Because I am obsessed and think about self-portraits in abandoned places all the time, I am surprised I don’t have a bigger collection of them. It is only due to a frustrating lack of time. You can view the set I have so far (WARNING! Some of these images are not safe for work) using this guest pass link here.
(Hopefully you can see all 30 images with that guest pass. I can’t figure out how to make the “moderate” images fall under this pass…if you have a Flickr account, you can just click through any “snowy” images if you have your filters set to safe).
