Going against my plans of having a day off the artwork, I have decided to fill you in about my obsession for Urbex, Urban Exploration. Check out this site as the perfect link to what I mean:
This website is the best link I can give, it is an online forum where all ages of people, men and women, grown and teenage add their thoughts and images of the explorations around the UK. And you'd be surprised to find out so many places near your very own home town, I know I was, and I made sure I visited these places. Check my Moleskine for in depth discussion and some photo analysis.
Let me tell you why I love Urbex so much. It's a hobby, and it also poses a certain element of danger - getting caught by a security guard, close scrapings with the police, a little bit of trespassing, and walking through damp and dingy buildings on thin floor boards anticipating what could be around the corner. It's a hobby I've recently gotten right into, and I have been on a few trips out to places now.
I find appeal in looking at the history of such buildings and environments, thinking about how long they have been left standing derelict, and thinking about what they used to be used for and why they aren't used any more. It could be changes in the economy which meant they had to close, they could have just gone plain bankrupt, or technology advanced so much that their way of doing things was obsolete, or the fact that they have sucked all of the natural resources from the earth beneath them and could no longer work at the same site. All of these things I am thinking about whilst I'm walking around these oddly beautiful places, and I think that's why I like doing it so much. Plus, it's always a bit of an adrenaline rush when the unexpected happens, because you know you shouldn't be there. Even a pigeon suddenly taking off and flying through the rafters gives you a buzz. Exploring these places at night gets freaky, you just can't see everything in an environment you have never been before, you have to rely on your senses to get through safely.
Photography is the best way of recording what you see, because normally you don't have enough time to sit down and make a quick sketch, you have to be on the move and usually out of sight. With photographs you can quickly capture what it is that is interesting you with a burst of the flash, then you can move on undetected.
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