Welcome to Photo.net: A Community of Photographers

Home > Learn > Photographing Ruins

Photographing Ruins

by Shaun O'Boyle

The wide shots can contrast the surrounding landscape of the area with the surprising and unexpected site of a deteriorating ruin. 

Historical Reference

A good way to introduce a ruin is to show a historical photograph juxtaposed to a current photograph. This will go a long way in showing how the building has or has not transformed over the years, and will create an interest in examining the details.

 

Go Wide

Wide aspect shots broaden the view and give more information about the surrounding landscape and are perhaps closer to what we see when we look at views such as these with the naked eye. You can achieve these photographs by cropping a normal frame down, using a wide format panoramic camera or by stitching together multiple frames using software.

 

Examine some of the larger details and see what is initially interesting about the place. If the site is a building you might be looking at the facade or other details that are unique to the building.
If the site is an industrial or institutional ruin you will find that each location is quite unique, depending on what the place once manufactured, processed, warehoused or healed (or any combination therein). Look for the structures that start telling the big story about what the place once did, or to give a sense of the mood you are trying to convey about the subject.

 

Look at different ways of framing your subject with parts of the architecture or structure. This will give the subject additional references to its site and may create a more interesting composition than a straight on shot.  Doors and overhead structures are a natural for this type of framing.

 

Pulling out details from the overall structure can sometime make sense of an otherwise overwhelming and confusing image. In the case of a steel mill where the function of the structure is pretty much a mystery to anyone but a steel worker, familiar forms give access and an avenue for understanding what the function might be, or at least allows us to say "that sort of looks like a house or barn buried in there". 

 

Look for text and words, it creates an immediately accessible link to a place, object or function and gets the viewer involved in a very direct way with the site.

 

Stitching shots together to form a  panorama is an option for sites that are just to big to fit in even a ultra wide lens, plus you maintain a normal lens look to the shot. Overlap many frames to be sure the stitching software will be able to connect the shots together. For this shot below I used a tripod and swiveled the camera so that the viewfinder was overlapping about 1/2 of the previous frame. 

 

It is a good idea to always use a tripod when shooting buildings, ruins and similar sites. You want to keep the camera level and rock steady while composing and carefully framing your shot with exactly the information you are trying to capture, and you are doing all this while thinking about getting your exposure and depth of field correct; too many things to keep track of and get right while hand holding your camera, especially if you use a hand held light meter. When you move into the interiors of these ruins the reasons will become more obvious with exposure times usually in the range of 1 to 30 seconds and longer. 

It helps to lead your viewer into the interior of the building just as you would experience when walking into the building yourself. Show a doorway and an entrance area, a hallway with details beyond to pull the viewer in. 

 

Most modern ruins were designed and built in the days before electric lights were in use in every room. These places are often beautifully lit with natural light coming in through windows and skylights. Take advantage of the available light for your exposure and use the tripod for the long exposures necessary in the low light. This will show the rooms as the occupants experienced them, and as the architects who designed them intended the spaces to be experienced. A flash is workable in a pinch when there is no natural light available, but it is necessary to get the flash off camera and carefully placed, preferably with more than one flash to paint the room or object with light. Another option is to open your shutter and paint the room with a hand held flashlight or other light source, but this can be a slow process that requires a lot of time and experimentation to get correct. 
Film choice is important for shooting long exposures in dark interiors. Good results can be achieved using negative film, especially when the goal is to scan the images. While there are no hard rules, slide film can get blocked up and become very dense from the many shadow areas making it difficult to get good scans. With negative film the shadow areas of the photograph are the thin parts of the negative, usually making it an easier task to pull detail from these areas. Negative film also has a wider exposure latitude allowing several more stops of information to be recorded on film. 
Check the film suggestions on this site for further recommendations regarding the latest information on films. Pay special attention to the reciprocity characteristics of the film as well as color shifting over long exposures. B&W film is an attractive option for shooting ruins, it will give a completely different mood to the photographs than color would. B&W films archival stability is an added attraction.  

 

My initial experience using a digital camera for longer interior exposures is good. Color balance holds well, better than film in many cases. Look for features such as the ability to set shutter speed and aperture manually.  A histogram for checking your exposure in the camera is very handy, you can then decide if you need to re-shoot immediately, a huge digital advantage. Digital cameras can take the place of a Polaroid camera for doing test shots. Noise is an issue with long exposures on digital cameras, and this should be tested prior to critical use. Lower asa settings seem to help this.
The 5 shots here were taken with a Canon S30 3.2 m-pixel digital pocket camera. The blown out highlights in two of the shots demonstrate the S30's intolerance for over exposure. Some of the higher end digital cameras may handle this better. Negative film would likely have held more detail in those areas. The S30's exposure range seems quite close to slide film in this regard. 

 

Use furniture as a hint of the age of the ruin, and as a way for your viewer to access  and relate to the space.

 

Look out of the building from the windows. This will put you in the place of the former occupants and perhaps give the viewer a perspective on what it was like to be inside the ruin when it was occupied.

Look for objects that people handle, things that people touch and use; things that can have a personal meaning to someone. It can make a personal statement and create a powerful contrast to the ruined industrial or institutional surroundings. 

 

The details can be the most powerful aspect of a ruin, it is where personal items and objects at a human scale can be examined and allowed to tell the tale of their past. 
Move in and examine the subtlety of each object and explore the relationship to the rest of the structure. Treat the site like an archaeological find, all the details tell a part of the whole story, each shard can give meaning to the big picture. 

 

In conclusion, you may find that in your part of the world there are unique places that once played an important role in your local history, they may be worth a peak since this is the heritage we have gained from the past. That old ruin on the edge of town may have more to offer than a quick glance would suggest. This is living history, often much more interesting than the cleaned up versions found in a museum.
Ask permission from the owner of the property before you attempt to photograph an abandoned site since most sites are posted against trespassing. These places can be quite dangerous so use common sense and caution when moving around these sites. Be aware that there may be air born toxins in these older buildings, asbestos dust and lead paint among them, so a quality respirator (not a paper dust mask) is an essential piece of gear to carry. 

Readers' Comments


Add a comment



Andrew Tierney , May 02, 2002; 02:27 P.M.

Although the wider perspective puts the building in context, a lot (if not most) ruins are impossible to photograph in a wide enough perspective to do this.

Quite often it is a good thing not to put the building in context like this, as by it becoming a ruin, people have forgotten what it was used for, a lot of others don't know it is even there. It's the smaller things, the human factors, that make the big difference.

Also, nature taking over - trees, bushes, make these views hard to get physically.

Saying all this, I'd love to get some wide angle stuff on a lot of places.

Paul Wilson , May 15, 2002; 08:46 P.M.

You left out what could be the most important piece of information about this subject and that is how to find places like this. So, how do you find these buildings and how do you gain access?

Keith Lenghaus , May 16, 2002; 10:31 A.M.

Regarding the question about finding ruins:

The means I use isn't a method per se, but seems to work pretty well.

A lot of urban ruins can be found in transitional suburbs. Areas which used to be a mix of houses and factories, but which are now in between. The warehouses and manufacturers have packed up and left, but the developers have yet to move in. Along rivers is a good place to look, and if you are in a port city, just upstream from the ports. Near railway lines is another good place to look. It usually doesn't matter if the lines are abandoned or still in use (but be aware of which applies!).

The biggest issue is access. Trespass is not fun, but a little courtesy runs a LONG way. If a security firm operates on site, contact them and ask how to go about getting in touch with the owners. And more often than not, a lot of great details can be photographed without ever setting foot on a site. There is an old mill near where I currently live with some AMAZINGLY (by modern standards) detailed brickwork.

In rural areas, well, ruins are everywhere. Along train lines is still a good one, since so many railway stations have been shut, pretty much everywhere in the world. Old farm buildings are another standard, but the most interesting ones (in my opinion) are the ones which are still just good enough to still be used. In the wool growing regions of Australia there are some amazingly decrepit gates, fences, sheep ramps which are still in use. Get a wide angle lens on some of those and you can have a lot of fun with perspective and putting things in, or out of, context.

James Clarke , January 11, 2003; 11:48 P.M.

First I want to say, "Thank You" for publishing this article. It is a great inspiration to me everytime I visit it. There needs to be many more articles that illustrate how a COLLECTION of images can be used to tell a story instead of trying to say everything in one shot.

On a more practical note, I'm wondering what equipment tricks and techniques you have come across in working in these abandoned landscapes. You mention getting access to these sites. Is there a pre-made liability waiver that you can present to someone to get access to these sites. You mention the sunlight that is often inherent in these types of places. Have you ever had cause to use a flash? Some places I have encountered are definite candidates for fill flash. If you have had to use flash, could you comment on any suggestions to keep in mind; maybe diffusion techniques you have had success with.

I'd also be interested to see what you experience has taught you about lense selection. I'm particularly curious about any use of telephoto lenses you may have had. A wide to short tele range goes without saying. I'd like to know if you've ever had cause to use anything 200 or greater to compress images. Obviously these would come in handy for isolating details, but I'm curious if you have any examples of landscape shots that you have compressed with a telephoto.

Frank Abbato , May 17, 2003; 12:36 A.M.

First, great work Shaun. Lots of excellent new shots since I last went to your web site!

Since finding ruins is part of the trade, I won't give out to much, but one really basic step that I've learned is - ask the locals! Most people know their neighborhoods. On a recent trip I was in Youngstown, Ohio photographing a steel mill (the bankrupt CSC mill for you steel mill fans). When I got off the interstate I saw an industrial surplus store. I picked the young alternative-looking lady at the counter to ask if there were any cool ruins in the area where I could take pictures. She easily directed me to some buildings she knew that ended up being decent (a burned out cement mill and some sort of small foundary). Note that I made some profiling-type assumptions about who and where to ask- think about it a little and don't be afraid to ask several people- they can't close any doors.

Maria Bostenaru , April 08, 2005; 09:17 A.M.


Sunset over the ruins of the Ceusescu regime in Bucharest, Romania (in 2002).

I hope this known, at least to some readers. During the Ceausescu regime in Romania, large parts of the city were "furnished" with new blocks of flats, corresponding to the view of the dictator on a better housing. In some cases, place for them was made through demolishment of old and valuable urban substance, about which literature was written.

Since the residential quality of these multiple housing buildings was low, after the change of regime there was little interest to finish the numerous buildings started. I photographed once the raw reinforced concrete frames in the stage these are left till today, as it proved to be a useful documentation for the structural system of buildings from the same time, for my research.

Here I did not include one of those photographs, but a more atmospheric one: a sunset in Pieptanari, over a not finished so-called "Circul foamei" (Hunger circus), which was the name given to food supermarkets built during the Ceausescu regime (as they used to be empty - no food). I guess so that the picture has a message.

Gordito Boddington , September 05, 2005; 07:26 P.M.

Industrial ruins are popular right now. I am interested in how abandoned spaces are reused and what happens when they become memorialized. I am constantly looking for new ways to represnt those spaces but this is where I got my start.

Gordon

Cathie Tranent , January 21, 2006; 08:28 A.M.

What a wonderful article, indeed the first I have seen specifically targeting at shooting ruins. I find it quite strange that I have no desire to photograph modern or normal architecture, but find old abandoned buildings and their associated detritus irresistable! Thanks! Cathie

Neli Sarova , October 10, 2006; 10:44 A.M.

Sweet article, the pictures hold a lot of meaning. How to find ruins kinda depends on where you live. I live near Detroit and its very easy to find ruins there, and most times its not difficult to gain access. It doesn't really matter whether your trespassing, most of the time its just you and the homeless who visit these sites. The thing you have to do is check all areas of the site to try to get inside. Don't give up if a door is locked, just keep exploring. The light is a problem with my camera because it blows out highlights all the time when I use a long shutter, but eh, just try to incorporate that in the photo in a creative way. A lens hood is a plus, gotta buy that soon... Oh, also try to park somewhere away from the site, or at least not right next to it. It gives you away pretty damn fast. Its also a good idea to go with someone else.

Art Ort , August 28, 2007; 08:23 A.M.

I love your work. I found this essay of yours by doing a search for Youngstown and abandoned buildings.

Beginning sometime circa 1990 I began hanging out in the remnants of the steel mills in Youngstown and the detritis left in their wake.

It wasn't until maybe a year or two later I that I considered taking pictures, memory triggers more than anything, a way of documenting the slow disintegration of what was Youngstown. Sadly, I have quite a few regrets, places where I spent time where I did not take photos, the Jeannette Blast Furnace my primary regret. I spent countless hours there late at night under moonlit skies. Great memories; no photos. I've pieced together some photos from other sources but it's not the same.

I know the landscape and the terrain of the city, the ruins tucked away in places no one would ever think to look, and got to know many the the homeless folks who lived on the street (and who knew all the good locations).

Here's a snippet:

http://community.webshots.com/user/aorto

If you're ever in Youngstown, Ohio for any reason, look me up.

Andrew Prokos , September 23, 2007; 10:22 A.M.

Great article Shaun. I would add that it's fairly rare that these spaces have any color left on the walls so black and white photography is a good way to go. A good contrasty and/or toned black and white print shows off this type of theme to great effect.

Kees de Jong , April 30, 2008; 03:25 P.M.

A good overview of reminders when visiting modern ruins and abandoned places. Shaun, thanks for the ideas (and also the other "guestbookvisitors")

Image Attachment: Afbeelding 9.png


Add a comment