Photographs abandoned sites
Photographic passion for the abandoned: the fashion of urban explorers
Abandoned buildings, solitary rooms full of silence and traces of a distant past are part of a fascination turned into photographic passion. The visual appeal of the hidden treasures that represent places and buildings now in ruins is undeniable.
The beauty of the abandoned has an attractive magic that is the one that leads more and more urban explorers to the search of corners in decline. Known as URBEX or UE (Urban Exploration), this trend seeks to document the state of buildings and places, a romanticism that leads many photographers to become true explorers. Even in groups and each with its routes, with those places marked on a secret map where they give free rein to a photograph that we could define as architecture but that is much more. Or the least different.
Mystery and secrecy
These photographers do not move because of architectural interests. It is rather a way to preserve the charm of an abandoned building, the mystery that leads them to photograph lost places. They take pictures, they enjoy the loneliness and decadence of their worn walls, but they do not usually reveal the location of these places. Something that increases the mystery and stimulates the passion to discover new locations. And the reason is none other than to avoid the massive arrival of curious people, tourists or people who can occupy or destroy those places.
There are many examples that we can find very close. Especially in large cities or towns with a prolific past, or even along roads and roads that have already lost their traffic in favor of other options: from hospitals to industrial buildings, from tunnels and catacombs to abandoned houses ... these are some of the scenarios more interesting for urban explorers. Of course, the more abandoned, uninhabited and unknown better. They are like treasures that explorers strive to capture photographically.
Popular places thanks to the photography of urban explorers
The passion of some urban explorers is such that they do not settle for their closest environment and take them to travel to other countries in search of new lost places. Ghost towns in Africa or abandoned industrial zones in Eastern Europe are some examples of attractive destinations for many.
Some of these sites are today emblematic and very photographed. Like Kolmanskop, an abandoned town in the middle of the desert of Namibia that was a mining city. Today it is a ghost town engulfed by sand.
Source: Jesús León
