'The sight is a familiar one along dusty back roads in the country: an old roofless silo left to the elements along with decaying barns, chicken coops and stone homesteads. This is the landscape of rural abandonment that define regions that have struggled with generations of exodus.'
NYTimes
I think it was the work of StudioMGphotography that first sparked my love of urban decay. Area's of abandonment, left to rot and decay, sadly, and painfully slowly over time. These location were mostly forgotten, even when plain site. It's fascinating how something so visually immense can be ignored with the passage of time.
Living in the country, I've seen for myself that architectural abandonment is not just an urban phenomenon. Almost daily, I pass rundown and abandoned homes, and maybe most frequently barns. Barns once filled with cows or chickens are now filled with nothing but garbage and unused open spaces.
There was once an old home near where I work. It was a huge old hundred year old plus mansion, right outside the town, but visually protected by a row of pine tree's. I used to visit that house often when out walking the dogs. It had an eerie feel, not because it was so big, but because of what was left inside.
Although filled with dust and cobwebs, it was also filled with the belongings of the previous inhabitants. The appliances and large pieces of furniture were missing, but there were chairs, tables and bookcases. To make things even more creepy, those bookcases still had books in them, mostly children's books, those tables had plates and cups on them and the walls, the were filled with family photos.
It was a large family, father, mother and grandmother and at least seven kids. The house looked as if the family bolted quickly one night, leaving with only the clothes on their back. There were plenty of stories, plenty of rumors, of a murder, of disease, of running from the law or from debt. What was so fascinating about that house was how those belongings remained intact for so many years.
No matter how many looky loo's, no many how many photographers or dog walkers toured the abandoned dwelling, those pieces of furniture remained, those books stayed in the bookcases, and those pictures remained on the walls. It was almost as if everyone, even those weekend partiers, had too much respect, or maybe too much fear... to destroy or move the families items from the rooms and walls.
Years later, the items would be gone, not removed, but burned in a fire that destroyed the home. I think often of that house, that home, and the family that once lived there. I've thought about it even more lately, given the current state of isolation. Driving through my town is odd, eerie in the same way walking through that house was. Most of our towns and city's are quiet, abandoned, like everyone got up and fled in the middle of the night.
While enjoying this series of images, my mind went back to that home, and the many abandoned houses, building and barns I've passed by and visited over the years. FH readers know Jacob from his work with Studio1x from his recent Easter visit. (The Golden Egg) Studio1x's Jim discovered this particular location, an abandoned dairy farm, last summer and spent the day there with Jacob and another model.
One of the things I love most about images of the male form shot in abandoned spaces is how their energy and naked bodies, bring spaces back to life, even if just for a moment. I love the many spaces that Jim used within the shoot and the many angles and ways he captured Jacob. I love how how Jacob's beautiful eyes seem to channel the many spirits enmeshed in the barns history.
No comments:
Post a Comment