Wasted Photography No More

Throughout my years of wherever I’ve been, there are many unique and interesting places that I’ve gone to and seen – especially in the West. Having lived in Arizona and Washington and spent time in Colorado, I’ve been to numerous ghost towns and areas that have been isolated or uncared for and forgotten about. Such areas have been fun to walk around and think about how life once was as well as to photograph the area. Letting the imagination wander as well as understanding history of the locations bring a perspective of feeling and connection.

Going back to my first blog, I love photography and taking pictures of old places such as ghost towns and abandoned, forgotten about areas and buildings. Photographing them helps preserve their stories and history – even if they’re in a dilapidated state and falling apart. Not everything lasts forever and back in the 19^th century, many towns were started with the hopes of mining being ample enough to thrive. Not many towns survived. Ones that did had other resources to help such as Leadville and being a great city for the outdoorsman. Once mining dwindled, the town struggled until finding a new way to bring people in. Other towns were not so lucky or did not survive that long. Once there was no longer any resources for townspeople to make a living, people left. Look at Detroit the past couple of decades. So many people have left the once megacity to find jobs elsewhere. Not that Detroit will become a ghost town by any means, even though many neighborhoods and areas have, the city will find new ways to keep people there and bring in a new population. Others, such as the two largest ghost towns remaining in Arizona, Vulture and Ruby, people have left which left the buildings to fend for themselves over time. Sadly, since the towns lost their citizens, others have come in and vandalized property or stolen parts such as building roofs, doors, and so forth, which have weakened the buildings even more.

Moving beyond ghost towns and old buildings, I have thousands of photographs. What I hate worse is there are so many just sitting on my hard drive being wasted. Even though I’ve had them displayed and sold at a couple of coffee shops, I feel as if they’re being wasted on my computer. With that being said, I finally decided to put out photography collections of certain locations. The first one from the Abandoned series coming out at an unknown date but likely within the next two months, if that, will be of Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is an old gold and silver town featuring many mining camps throughout the area. Years have gone by as many buildings remain uncared for, the buildings were photographed throughout a few different visits and sadly since then, some of the buildings have completely fallen. Second of the series will be an Arizona ghost town so please be on the lookout for the Abandonment series, coming soon from Barnes and Noble!