Anyone who follows my photographic creations may find a common theme amongst or more specifically, a background.

Since I was just a young’n I’ve traveled the roads on foot and stopped whenever I saw a building in disrepair. I’m not sure what drew me in, but the site of rust, dirt, moss and general shamble made my imagination run wild. Maybe evil was afoot inside and they didn’t care about the state of their home or maybe it was the home of a crazed old man who destroyed your footballs and frisbees when they made it into his yard. That spark of imagination still lingers inside and to this day I find myself stopping on the street to look at the decayed ruin in front of me…

Since I’m older, wiser and apparently stupid enough to enter places that I legally and mentally should not enter, I have found a new backdrop to contrast my photographic works with. I love working with beautiful women, like any man should, but I’m not one to stick to everything beautiful. In my eyes I love to see strange contrasts or visual oddities that make people wonder. When I discovered a handful of places that I ventured in years ago just to photograph the interior I learned I could create something a little different. By different I meant taking a gorgeous model and placing her in the most decayed and ruined places while trying to show off her beauty. To me this adventure has become a passion since I first held my camera to a model and after seeing the works on many local greats. My biggest inspiration when I first started doing this was Brian Milo who did a lot of ridiculously amazing stuff in the not so normal places.

Brian’s work was an inspiration to many just starting out in the area as his vision was unique and spoke to me personally as a mountain to reach and at its peak would be greatness in the field of photography. I’ve met Brian, I’ve shot with Brian in the same building, but I don’t think he ever knew how much his work meant to a kid with a camera just starting out a few years ago. Guess he’ll find out after I publish this blog post

My first year or so of model work was filled with plain jane stuff that lacked the visual strength that I’d seen from so many amazing photographers. I spent a lot of my time using the basement as a lab for lighting and studied thousands of photos trying to find myself as a photographer. It wasn’t until a little over a year ago I noticed that I had begun to truly understand what I was doing and why. People loved my work, even though I didn’t. I’m still not satisfied with what I produce even though I like some of the things that have matured from my camera. This self-criticism has been pushing me to get further in a short period of time and with the help of a close friend that always tells me how amazing I am I’m beginning to notice what makes my work different and why my work is good. She’ll always be an amazing inspiration and as one of the best models I’ve ever worked with she will be ever engrained as the reason why I continued to push forward so hard all this time.

When my own work started to shine to me I had begun to work harder finding new and interesting locations that were off the beaten path. Traveling all over downtown for alleys, cruising the farm land for abandoned homes and making phone calls to local shooters who had personal experiences at some of the areas best untapped resources has added so much to my work. One of the best places I’ve ever photographed in has so many rooms, nooks, crannies and floors it’s an endless shooting spree for someone with a camera and time. The building is currently scheduled for demo and I hope to use as much of the place as possible before it’s beauty is taken from us local photographers and artists.

In time more places will open up to us photographers and I hope to continue to move forward in this direction. Finding these amazing buildings where their natural decay is a thing of beauty just makes doing what I do an even better experience. I can’ help but look at something that once had such majesty finally shows it’s age and effects of earth and nature taking it down to restart the process all over again.

If you’ve never been to an abandoned building I highly recommend it. I would like to warn the newbie adventures to be safe out there and it’s better to go in groups if at all possible. If you find a great place don’t forget to share!