" A good snapshot keeps a moment from running
away." — Eudora Welty.
Being
in decrepit and old places inspires my creativity and gives me ideas of ways
that I can express myself through my photography. Abandoned warehouses, run-down
cemeteries, shut-down hospitals, and dark and shadowy alleyways: these are the
types of places I like to photograph. There is a creepy feeling to being in
these places. Like seeing a ghost, the
structures themselves are sometimes like skeletons, and the spaces are haunted
with the past lives of those who actually had lived there.
Recently
I photographed the Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. I took photographs within
the cells and around the cellblocks and grounds. The paint was peeling and chipping, dust and
dirt covered the floors like a blanket, the metal was rusty and bled into the
surrounding walls. The plaster on the walls was dripping down and crumbling
onto the floor. But amid all that decay,
ivy and plants found their way through the cracks and windows of the
penitentiary walls. Life was still trying to enter this dead and decaying
place. These details inspire me to want
to capture these places on film.
Capturing
a photo of these places reminds me of Welty's quote. These decaying structures
are a fleeting part of history. There
isn't room for the old and decaying structures and objects in our society, old
buildings will be torn down so new ones can come up, and new people can move
in. That's why I think it is so important
to capture these places while I still can. Their time is running out. Their
days are numbered. The crumbling stones, the rotting wood might not be there in
a few years.
Old
decrepit places inspire my photography because they bring me into their history. If I capture these places on film they won’t
be completely gone, they won’t be completely forgotten. My documentation will
keep them in my mind, and in other peoples’ minds. Looking through a camera I
can preserve the decaying present.
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