So I've been looking at the forums and I've started to notice that people look for different states of abandonment. So now I pose the question: What, to you, is the perfect state for an abandonment? For me personally, I like my places broken up, but not by people. Natural decay is something that's hard to come by in today's society, so finding that one place that no one else has found in decades is a dream come true to me. Also, NO GRAFFITI!

I do mostly rural stuff, so I look for untouched remote locations.

...Also, on a more corny note, I look for myself as well *ugh, lame*

Graffiti doesn't bother me personally, I don't mind if the building is painted head to toe. That being said what I like is when a building is completely left alone, no security, no cop patrols, and no close neighbors. Those buildings are typically the ones that I get the best photos. You can take your time and stay for hours, make yourself feel at home. I remember this one building, covered in graffiti, and we were sitting there in these chairs just talking looking at everything in this one room when I realized that this one square of light was approaching this seemingly unfinished graffiti. Some kid had added a few lines to some cut away pipes and made a dinosaur with a body of light. Any other time of day and it looked stupid. Any day that has clouds for that 10 minutes it was a stupid unfinished head, tail, and legs. Even those stupid kids have their moments, the painting was still terrible but I liked the idea of it. I think of it as part of the decay. When I have to sneak into a building and time the amount of minutes the security guard takes on his hourly rounds constantly worrying about where my flashlight is shining holding my breath at every creak and moan of the building the anxiety kills it for me and I can't just relax and enjoy the scenery. People are just in it for different reasons I guess, I'm not an explorer, I'm a photographer. When I think about this it makes sense to me why the graffiti bothers the explorers out there, I would hate to be reminded as well that I am probably not even the first one to set foot in this place since last week.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about any type of abandonment, but my favorite kind is the ones that are insanely hard to enter. I find it really rewarding to work hard to enter a place (without doing any damage) and be able to explore something that is essentially how it was when it was left by the owners (not trashed or filled with graffiti).
Although most of my exploring is just normal buildings, I almost always am working on a plan to get into some high security place that is considered by most to be entirely inaccessible.
When I say high security though, I mean the building itself is secured well, not that it has guards...

What do I look for in an abandonment?

Um, for it to be abandoned? That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

The condition of this care home I explored in the summer sums up almost exactly what I look for in my 'perfect' abandonment. Pretty much entirely natural decay and no real signs of morons trashing the place.





I really don't like stuff that looks minty fresh unless it's really different, it's that reason why I don't really enjoy modern hospitals because, over here at least, the NHS usually takes almost everything out of them when they are closed and then all you are left with is a bland shell full of empty rooms.

Looks like a great place mookster!

I think for me decay is on the first place, second is old architecture/industry. Good lighting for photography is a big plus.

What I absolutely don't like is brand new looking places, too clean, monotone buildings like offices. Graffiti I absolutely hate in 90% of the cases, sometimes it's not too bad and very rarely it adds something.

Most Korean buildings except the very traditional are pretty drab, so usually I look for dramatic landscapes.

Posted by KASTRAX What do you look for in an abandonment?

Dead people

Posted by Speed Dead people

Oh.

Posted by mookster Pretty much entirely natural decay and no real signs of morons trashing the place.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Posted by azuro1125...Also, on a more corny note, I look for myself as well *ugh, lame*

It's not corny. Some people are doing it for others, not for themselves. I mean, some people are not even thinking how explroation affects state of a mind.

Maybe i like abandoned places the most when i know for sure - tomorrow or next week this place will be gone forever. Then comes that moment when i surely know - nothing in this life is permanent, things MUST change otherwise it's boring to live on this planet. I have been inside places while there are construction workers or scrappers. Yeah, it's not as pleasant as when everything still is quiet and when everything feels infinite.

Posted by telefontubbie Maybe i like abandoned places the most when i know for sure - tomorrow or next week this place will be gone forever. Then comes that moment when i surely know - nothing in this life is permanent, things MUST change otherwise it's boring to live on this planet. I have been inside places while there are construction workers or scrappers. Yeah, it's not as pleasant as when everything still is quiet and when everything feels infinite.

This video: Our Greatest Delusion (https://youtu.be/EKR-HydGohQ)

Philosophical ideas behind exploring and the ones brought up in this video are just one of the reasons that I love to explore. I embrace that everything is ephemeral and it adds to the enjoyment of every day.

I also simply like the aesthetics of anything decaying or being overcome by nature.

I also like the smell that old buildings have.

Posted by enirus I also like the smell that old buildings have.

Too bad it's the smell of lung cancer building up

Posted by telefontubbie Maybe i like abandoned places the most when i know for sure - tomorrow or next week this place will be gone forever. Then comes that moment when i surely know - nothing in this life is permanent, things MUST change otherwise it's boring to live on this planet. I have been inside places while there are construction workers or scrappers. Yeah, it's not as pleasant as when everything still is quiet and when everything feels infinite.

I think the ones that you know are gonna be gone have a special feel to them, knowing that you are going to be one of the last people to ever be inside that location. That being said, I also really like the locations that haven't been touched in years, which are hard to come by in Iowa if they aren't farmsteads.

This video: Our Greatest Delusion (https://youtu.be/EKR-HydGohQ)

Ah a fellow redditor I see. I thought of the same post/video when I saw his comment. Great video. Rocks.

I mostly dig places that have been vacated for some time and have items left around. Graffiti is ok, but it does get out of hand in some places. Natural decay and non-obvious POEs are key.

Personally? Places that are more or less generally untouched, because the state of just dust covering objects left as they were exactly 20, 30 years back, it's like walking in on something straight out of an apocalypse film essentially.

There's something about it, something like how life just decided to one day stop, the clock no longer ticking, and nobody around for miles.

That said, I despite most graffiti, except for tasteful artwork like a mural of sorts, as those take some skill to make rather than some idiot's scrawlings. For instance, in a building in Detroit, specifically the Roosevelt Warehouse that burned 30 years back. An artist painted a mural of a book rising from the ashes like a Phoenix. That, fits the location perfectly.


Other than that, i like places that are mostly intact, but they can be weather-worn, have peeling paint. Generally it depends on exactly how it looks for me. My main requirements are;

1. It has stuff. even big stuff like industrial machines, or maybe just a handful of personal effects like a television and a bed, some chairs.

2. It's not a completely empty, color-lacking, wall-missing, floor-crumbling concrete ruin. There's enough of those as is.

The reason for this is because color is generally needed to make a lot of images look good, at least ones that aren't intentionally monochromatic. A grey concrete shell isn't interesting for photos mainly because everyone KNOWS it's supposed to look grey, so even monochroming it wouldn't save it.

in essence, it's all about the way the structure looks and it's colors. Having things like furniture also adds color.

architecture.

Posted by Porcelain Doll architecture.

architecture is also a big one for me.
That, and drugs. Always looking for drug operations to help myself to! Why else would anyone explore?!