'Abandoned' by Matt Murphy
Welcome to another captivating photo essay, this time by Matt Murphy. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment below and, if you're interested, share your photo essay with us. Your perspectives add valuable dimensions to our collective exploration.
Abandoned
The word itself carries a dark, sad meaning. These aren’t spaces that are just empty, they’re left behind. People wanted nothing to do with them, and in some places the Earth just swallows them up. Our landscapes are littered with different places left like this. In some parts of the world we see them as thousands of years old ruins. In others they were functional places just a few years ago.
I like to visit these places, sometimes more than once over a period of years. They can be easy to access, just on the side of the road, or they can be dangerous and illegal to break into. I haven’t yet been caught, nor have I gotten hurt. You can find hundreds of videos on YouTube of people who break into these places trying to skirt the law and see what what was left to be forgotten. I want to document them in a more artistic, rather than documentary way. There are several locations in the photos. Some I visited more than once over the past ten years. These locations don’t just show our past, they also give us insight into our present and future.
Walls
I had been thinking a lot lately about walls. The world is enamored with walls being built to keep people in or out. There is always this desire to control what you can’t control. Around the world people are dying inside and outside of walls.
This wall belongs to the Old Joliet Prison in Joliet, Illinois. It was designed to keep people in. Like all walls eventually it stopped serving that purpose and was left to remind us of the futility of attempting to control.
The prison was closed in 2007 after being built in the 1800’s. It had housed serial killers and gangsters, and appeared in movies such as The Blues Brothers and the TV show Prison Break. Since being closed it fell into great disrepair and was a must go to site for people looking to break into an abandoned site.
There is a very creepy vibe to the place. Maybe it was haunted. Maybe it just felt that way. Either way, the longer you were inside the more if felt like you were going to run into a ghost or maybe the prisoner they left behind.
The human element
A lot of things always get left behind in a abandoned places. It’s as if they closed up and didn’t bother to pack.
There is something about old rusted out furniture that gives it some kind of charm. Someone sat in that chair everyday for years. Then one day they got up and never came back.
That human element is important to any abandoned place. People worked in these warehouses and buildings. They raised families and grew old in these houses. Now they are gone and the buildings are all that remain.
A Modern Dystopia
The word dystopian gets used a lot to describe these areas. This location is an old military base that was given to the federal government and turned back into its original prairie. The old bunkers that held munitions during WW II still remain. Giant concrete bunkers designed to withstand explosions from inside and out, they dot the landscape like leftovers of a failed futuristic conflict.
Where Does It All Go?
An old furniture warehouse in South Bend, Indiana was left to crumble on itself once the manufacturing industry left town. It’s interesting to see how it collapsed in sections. Some spots look like they could be cleaned up and reused.
I’ve visited this location a few times over the years. It’s completely gone now. Just an empty field. I wonder where that truck is now?
Modern Art
No visit to abandoned places would be complete without talking about graffiti. It can bring life to an abandoned place by turning the collapsing building into a new work of art. It brings personality and color to what could be a dismal place.
The graffiti artists can tell their own story reminding us that these structures were once an important part of towns they inhabit.
The End
From a distance an abandoned place can dominate the skyline. A massive building that once represented the march of progress is left to decompose in the countryside.
I would be remiss if I didn’t remind the reader that these locations are normally located in difficult to access locations. Because they are on private property they can be monitored by police and/or private security. Lastly they can be very dangerous to explore. You must be careful to take the proper precautions before exploring. It is very easy to get injured or worse.
Of course that doesn’t really stop those of us who do this. It’s a lot of fun. I am already on the lookout for my next abandoned location.
Over the last several decades Matt Murphy has transitioned from professional videographer to leisure photographer (with some video here and there). A creator of stories both visual and written, Matt has published several novels and taken probably too many photos. Located in Chicago, IL he is waiting for the winter to thaw and the sun to return.
