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 archiphoto
Location: North Carolina
Gender: Male
 |  |  | An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
< on 8/9/2013 3:01 AM >
|  | | | First time I'm telling this full story. Earlier this year I took a desperately needed weekend off and found an abandoned North Carolina church building. I ignored the friendly signs, checked the door, and voila, one was unlocked. No alarms, no detectors, so I grabbed a couple flashlights and walked in.
1. Part of the roof had collapsed and was leaking big time into the building.
2. I don't typically shoot a lot of photographs. By the time I had set up this second shot another pair of flashlights were in the building, and a few seconds later I was facing the raised gun of a police officer.
This isn't the first time faced with a situation like this, but my first in about a decade. Back then I never had any issues with police, they're usually relieved I just have a camera.
These police weren't messing around. I was ordered out of the building and left all of my photography equipment in the church. They asked what I was doing there and I straight up told them. At first they didn't buy the story, so they checked to see if anything was missing. They called the building's owner to see if they wanted to press charges. I was standing outside surrounded by - get this - seven police officers and three squad cars.
I was never formally arrested and cuffed during this whole time, so wasn't worried and figured the worst I'd get was a misdemeanor trespass. I also have a lawyer on retainer (not for stuff like this) but was pretty sure given the situation and no prior offenses I could get off with minimum damage to my record. When they saw my license and business cards, which were consistent with my story, they figured I was telling the truth. Upon spying my camera equipment, one of the officers asked how much my camera body/lens assemblies cost. I told him.
He chuckled, "Oh yeah, you're definitely not stealing anything."
I'm ridiculously careful with approaching empty buildings, so asked how I was spotted. Turns out it was a completely random incident that goes to show you even the best-laid precautions can't prevent anything.
As we waited for the owners of the church to arrive, I spent the next 30 minutes chatting with the police officers. Told them who I was, what I did for a living, why I liked structures like this. By this time, everyone's relaxed and it was up to the owners of the building to press charges or not.
The owner arrived. I stepped up, and straight up apologized. He said it was no big deal, asked how I got in, I told him the door was unlocked, which it was. I went through the same thing explaining why I was shooting pictures.
He looks at me, then starts telling me the history of the church, what happened to the roof, and why they had to shut it down. The land was for sale and likely the church would be razed by whomever the new owner would be. He wasn't going to bring charges. In fact, he said, "Hey man, take all the pictures you want."
Apparently this whole event made all of the police officers' days. We all shook hands, they wished me luck, said be careful, and informed me which spots had gang activity I should avoid. As they left, the owner and I chatted for another 45 minutes as he - get this - not only tells me more about the church, but other abandoned places I might want to check out. He tells me to knock myself out, leaves the church building completely unlocked to do as I please for the next few hours and he'd return later to lock it up.
I sent him prints a week later.
3.
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8.
9.
10.
11. Alright. This is an abandoned textile mill. Graffiti free, which was surprising. A lot of water damage on the underground floor so I'm sure it's matter of time before the floor assemblies start caving in.
12.
13.
14. Condemned building. Went inside, nothing of interest.
15. This is an open-air structure in downtown Statesville. Pretty good spot for a model shoot.
16.
17. An adjacent unoccupied office building.
[last edit 8/9/2013 3:07 AM by archiphoto - edited 1 times]
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TacitBlue83
  
Location: Pennsyltucky!
Gender: Male
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 1 on 8/9/2013 3:18 AM >
| | | | like a BOSS. nice story.
well done. i love the open air one. def model material. textile mill is cool. get any macro or other shots of the yarn on the racks? i like that stuff 
show me your peeling paint and I will love you forever |
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Benched_it
Location: Central NC
Gender: Male
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 2 on 8/9/2013 3:23 AM >
| | | | I do like a happy ending. Great pics, nice work!
https://www.flickr...otos/97792661@N03/ |
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kenfagerdotcom
Location: Madison, WI
Gender: Male
American Urbex... yeah. That was me.
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 3 on 8/9/2013 3:30 AM >
| | | | Great shots and an even more harrowing story. It's good that the police lightened up, but that show of force seems disproportionate to what you were doing. You did the right thing by deescalating the situation.
If there was electricity in that church I would have plugged NBA Jam in and dropped a few quarters. Boomshakalaka!
Flickr: http://www.flickr....os/kenfagerdotcom/ |
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archiphoto
Location: North Carolina
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 4 on 8/9/2013 3:31 AM >
| | | | I didn't, I'll admit my biggest weakness with photography is taking close up shots. I'm trying to get better with doing those.
Posted by TacitBlue83
like a BOSS. nice story.
well done. i love the open air one. def model material. textile mill is cool. get any macro or other shots of the yarn on the racks? i like that stuff
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archiphoto
Location: North Carolina
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 5 on 8/9/2013 3:35 AM >
| | | | I was really thrown off by how many there were, maybe it was a slow day or something. Honestly, I kinda chalked it up as my luck had to run out sometime. Of course they don't know exactly what the situation is at the time of call, but I've never dealt with more than two at a time.
Posted by kenfagerdotcom
Great shots and an even more harrowing story. It's good that the police lightened up, but that show of force seems disproportionate to what you were doing. You did the right thing by deescalating the situation.
If there was electricity in that church I would have plugged NBA Jam in and dropped a few quarters. Boomshakalaka!
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lonewolf34
Location: Phoenix
Gender: Male
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 6 on 8/9/2013 12:17 PM >
| | | | nice shots. The church looks to still be in really good condition. How long has it been abandoned?
Are the rest of the places the locations he told you to check out?
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EsseXploreR
 
Location: New Jersey
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 7 on 8/9/2013 12:57 PM >
| | | | Nice. First time I ever got brought to the station was because me and 3 buddies were passing a bowl around on the playground at a school in my town. They sent 8 cops in 6 cars to come get us. Fuckin suburbs man....
Glad you didn't get arrested. I was at a church with my girl which was alarmed, but after 20 minutes of waiting on the street to see if the cops came we went back in to shoot it. The police station is right across the street, so we figured we were okay. Then as we were leaving the second time, we walked right out to a police officer sitting in his car. Luckily, he was parked in a way where only half of his car could see us... the passenger side lol. He questioned us about it, but he couldn't prove we were inside so he let us go. He honestly just thought I was crazy bringing my girlfriend to an abandoned building in a shady neighborhood. Good times.
You've been up to some cool stuff lately dude, keep up the good work.
https://www.flickr...62837453@N07/sets/
http://www.tfpnj.blogspot.com |
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Tenebrae
Location: The Wild West
Life's short; eat dessert first.
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 8 on 8/9/2013 1:08 PM >
| | | | Great story! Love the happy ending.
I like the way the floor feels like it's sliding toward the viewer (I'm assuming it isn't, actually) in #10, and the visual tension of the chair facing out of the frame. Plus, I enjoy B/W.
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archiphoto
Location: North Carolina
Gender: Male
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 9 on 8/9/2013 1:37 PM >
| | | | No, I posted these in reverse order, the mill and other locations I went to before the church. After the day's events, I was like, screw this I'm moving on to another town! I haven't been in the area since though I intend to. I was speaking with another UE and it turns out at least one of the spots the owner mentioned no longer exists.
The church has been empty for...I want to say between 3-5 years. The roof was leaking and the church tenant never mentioned it to the owner. It got so bad that a gaping hole resulted, leaking from the roof down to the ground level. The tenant moved out and the cost for repairs was so much it proved prohibitive. So it's just been sitting there since.
Posted by lonewolf34
nice shots. The church looks to still be in really good condition. How long has it been abandoned?
Are the rest of the places the locations he told you to check out?
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DevilC
 
Location: Washington, District of Corruption
Gender: Male
I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their views.
| | | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 10 on 8/9/2013 1:45 PM >
| | | | If it's going to be razed ... I want all that stained glass.
Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into tall buildings. |
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Anaklusmos
Location: Where I want to be, not where I should be.
Gender: Male
I'm a man of many hats.
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 11 on 8/9/2013 9:26 PM >
| | | | Wow... What a day that must've been, glad you got away unscathed, and who would think the cops showing up during an explore could be beneficial. Hopefully your luck has been reset. Happy trails.
Fucking Spiders..... |
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dammband
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Gender: Male
| | Re: An abandoned church building, good times with the police, and other sightings
<Reply # 12 on 8/10/2013 6:30 PM >
| | | | Great shots dude
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