Abandoned

A couple of my fave urbexing shots.


table revisted by Dr.Doo, on Flickr
T.G Green Cornish Ware pottery factory


Wheelchair Access by Dr.Doo, on Flickr
My best urbexing selfie at Nocton Hospital, Lincolnshire.

[Ginger]

Dkatari brought up a word I didn't know: "urbexing."

I found this definition in http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Urbexing

"Urbexing is the act of exploring urban areas that are generally off-limits to regular civilians."


I've always been intrigued by spaces that are off-limits to many. I'm not talking about private residential space, but private spaces within public settings.

I like meeting people who share access to those spaces. Like, an old friend who was the head of pathology at a hospital in NYC. He gave me a tour through lab areas that were off limits to visitors, so I could take notes for a poem.

I would love to find a guide who could share access with me to:

• abandoned subway stations
• animal clinics at the Bronx zoo
• places in the redwood forests in Humboldt Park, Northern California, where the largest trees on earth are growing (their sites are off limits to the general public, for the trees' protection)
• the construction site of the new Freedom Tower, looking out from the cage of steel beams at 100 stories

Before 9/11, when security all over the City was more slack, I would sneak behind the scenes at Madison Square Garden at the Westminster Dog Show, so I could wander up and down the aisles where the show dogs were being temporarily housed and groomed.

Their owners sat in lawn chairs, and the dogs were on leashes next to them. The owners were happy to talk about their dogs, and the dogs were friendly and well behaved. I got to pet an Irish Wolf Hound; I'd never seen one before in person.

And it was so cool to watch the dogs being blow dried and groomers trimming their whiskers and eye brows and so on. It's a real art, grooming some of the dogs, like standard poodles, where such precision goes into their hair cuts.

So I guess I have the heart of an urbexer. Who knew.

Originally Posted by IslandScout

Dkatari brought up a word I didn't know: "urbexing."

I found this definition in http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Urbexing

"Urbexing is the act of exploring urban areas that are generally off-limits to regular civilians."


I've always been intrigued by spaces that are off-limits to many. I'm not talking about private residential space, but private spaces within public settings.

I like meeting people who share access to those spaces. Like, an old friend who was the head of pathology at a hospital in NYC. He gave me a tour through lab areas that were off limits to visitors, so I could take notes for a poem.

I would love to find a guide who could share access with me to:

• abandoned subway stations
• animal clinics at the Bronx zoo
• places in the redwood forests in Humboldt Park, Northern California, where the largest trees on earth are growing (their sites are off limits to the general public, for the trees' protection)
• the construction site of the new Freedom Tower, looking out from the cage of steel beams at 100 stories

Before 9/11, when security all over the City was more slack, I would sneak behind the scenes at Madison Square Garden at the Westminster Dog Show, so I could wander up and down the aisles where the show dogs were being temporarily housed and groomed.

Their owners sat in lawn chairs, and the dogs were on leashes next to them. The owners were happy to talk about their dogs, and the dogs were friendly and well behaved. I got to pet an Irish Wolf Hound; I'd never seen one before in person.

And it was so cool to watch the dogs being blow dried and groomers trimming their whiskers and eye brows and so on. It's a real art, grooming some of the dogs, like standard poodles, where such precision goes into their hair cuts.

So I guess I have the heart of an urbexer. Who knew.

I'm not at home so can't answer fully. I can explain a lot more about urbexing later. Now you've looked up urbexing now try flanneur and psychogeography.



Sadly there's been a fashion for over-processing urbex shots with the HDR technique. As can be seen in some of the above pictures. I personally don't like it and think that it spoils the natural beauty of decay.

[Ginger]

Originally Posted by Daktari

I'm not at home so can't answer fully. I can explain a lot more about urbexing later. Now you've looked up urbexing now try flanneur and psychogeography.



Sadly there's been a fashion for over-processing urbex shots with the HDR technique. As can be seen in some of the above pictures. I personally don't like it and think that it spoils the natural beauty of decay.

I feel a strong affinity (regarding my work, and way of being in the world), with both the flanneur and psychogeographic aesthetic!

Thanks for bringing those words to mind.

As for the HDR technique—I Googled it: "High Dynamic Range" photography.

As for "spoiling the natural beauty of decay," I agree in the sense that the technique seems to romanticize decay, whereas if you didn't HDR the shots of abandoned places—in which the human-made decays, and the natural thrives—there would still be plenty of opportunity to capture intensity, longing, despair, joy, and other feelings they might evoke.

I'm not a photographer and I don't want to dis the HDR thing outright, just saying in some instances I think it's the easy way out.

But still beautiful.

And as for stuff that's romanticized, I like it romanticized to the point of being almost hallucinogenic.