On road trips, I am always amazed and intrigued by the many abandoned, deteriorating houses and business building that I see, especially in rural areas. I’ve taken more note of these on my most recent trips through northwestern Texas and portions of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Tennessee.
It has occurred to me that an interesting photographic project would be to seek out, photograph and document many of the more prominent and interesting abandoned buildings, perhaps, even documenting the history of those structures, the ownership and the stories behind how these came to be abandoned. One would also need to get permission from the appropriate people to photograph those that require getting onto private property to do so and this would take time and effort. A project of this magnitude would be a major undertaking and one that I am not likely to have sufficient time to pursue. However, I might try to take more time to photograph some of those easily accessible ones that I encounter on my journeys.
On the last leg of my most recent trip, between Amarillo and DFW, I eventually decided to take time to photograph a few, after passing up many other interesting looking abandoned houses. I only shot a few of these dilapidated structures, as I had a travel schedule and I could not take too much time stopping frequently for photos.
A dedicated project to photograph these abandoned structures could take much time, especially, if one were to try to get the photographs from early morning to about mid-morning or middle to late afternoon. Photographing during various seasons would also be good, maybe getting fall color or spring flowering plants into the compositions, where possible, and maybe winter photos with snow on and around the old homes.
I will keep this idea in the back of my mind and maybe take a trip just to photograph these nostalgic buildings. I’m sure there are many of these scattered throughout the countryside near me; but those might take much exploring to find. On the other hand, there are many visible along major US and State highways throughout rural areas near many small towns, where changing economic conditions result in the displacement of people and businesses.
I will welcome readers’ suggestions on this topic. Maybe some of you are aware of interesting, abandoned houses and can share information about those.
Ken
I have always been fascinated by old abandoned buildings and the stories they have to tell and the potential photo ops that they provide. It is quite amazing the quality of the excellent photos you have taken with your phone and with editing.
I always thought it would be interesting to take the map of Texas and circle all the little towns with crazy names. How did they get their names, in the first place? And then to connect the dots and plan a road trip taking many smaller roads to find and research these quirky towns. To my mind… “small town Texas” is definitely an adventure, especially not knowing exactly what you are to find. And along the way, I am sure you will find some interesting characters as well as down-home Texas eating. Let the adventure begin!
Fay, that does sound like a fun adventure.
I’ve often thought that I should get a small, lightweight point and shoot type camera to take with me, when I don’t want the inconvenience of lugging around a heavy DSLR and associated lenses and accessories. Even after much research on those type cameras, I’ve not been able to pick one that I though I had to have. I have a difficult time getting past wanting a small camera that does everything a DSLR does. So I’ve been getting more used to the iPhone as an everyday carry camera and realizing that I can do a bit of limited editing of the iPhone photos; but I still think a better, dedicated small camera would be worth having.