Abandoned places

As a photographer it’s no secret that we love weird strange places to shoot, and my favorites are without abandoned places. In the Netherlands they are somehow hard to find, but you can find some if you look. So when I’m on a trip I will always try to find some on route.

Because we most of the time try to drive “off the road” the change of bumping into these buildings is much greater than when staying on the main roads, this is by the way something I can advise to everyone… when on a trip try to program your nav system to take “main routes” as minimal as possible, your driving time will be much longer in most cases, but you will find some great places. In this blog post just some images we shot during our trip in the US with the topic decay.

All were not planned and found along the route. Expect the last building which in fact was one of the locations of my Boston workshop.

Getting into the buildings are often a challenge and in 99.9% of the cases illegal. Always realize that in fact you are doing something that is not allowed, but also realize that in most cases the police or owners don’t “really” care for photographers that are treating the property with respect and really are there to photograph the beauty. I’ve been doing this for some years and got “caught” twice, in both cases I immediately explained what I was doing and also showed the images we had at that time and asked nicely if I should go or if I could continue… in both cases I was allowed to stay but was warned not to come back again.

Now I realize I was/am lucky, so be prepared that you could end up in jail or fined, however in 99.9% of the cases you will probably be released very quickly, but be prepared for that consequences, for me the images are always worth it. To make sure you will be released soon, always be nice, keep the property the way you found it, don’t destroy things, don’t move things and make 100% sure that you are nice and open to the security or police, if you start to run or hide you will only make things MUCH worse, if you see police/security coming just let them come, welcome them and be nice in most cases this is enough to prevent being send away or worse. (also highly depending on the mood of officer).

A few more tips.
Make 100% sure (and I really mean 100%) that you are safe. These places are INCREDIBLY dangerous, you could literally die. In the building we did the workshop for example there were drops of over 40 mtrs straight down. Realize that although the floors might seem incredibly stable and solid there is always a chance that you could fall straight through parts that are rotten, most of these buildings have been standing empty for many many years and in most cases structures are collapsed and supports might be gone. An image is NEVER, and I repeat NEVER worth your life, so when in doubt NEVER take the shot.

When you go up stairs make sure that there is another way out, if one stair collapses you must have an option to leave the building via another staircase or window etc.

Make sure that there is someone with you, and never travel together, if one goes up a level make sure the second person stays down until you are down, if you really have to go alone bring your cellphone and make an arrangement with a friend/partner that you call every half hour, if you don’t call make sure they will start calling you and if you don’t respond they will start searching for you.

Wear a hat/cap when entering certain buildings, I’ve been in a few buildings where I came back home with an incredibly itch on my head due to bites and irritations from certain bugs, it was all solved very quickly with some shampoo but ever since I will wear a cap when entering smaller places.

Get a mouth cap, you can buy them at your local DIY store, it’s a good choice to always wear them inside the buildings, but especially in buildings that were used for chemical production or could contain asbestus or other nasty stuff, and remember that in fact ALL the buildings contain nasty stuff. When I stay in a building longer than 2 hours I will always wear a mouth cap just to be sure.

This all sounds way too careful and might sound stupid, but remember that these buildings are fenced off for a reason. I’ve visited many over the years and have never found a building that I would say is safe for unexperienced “urban explorers”.

The following shots were taken inside the building we did the second part of the Boston workshops.