Why are you drawn to decay?

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Chris,

OK: for communism, let's substitute 'practice' for 'ideology'. I was trying to compress things too much.

Let's not forget too that many led entirely tolerable lives in Nazi Germany without being Nazis.

Which is not to say I am arguing with you...

Does that make more sense?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Rob Skeoch]

On of the great things about these old buildings is they aren't moving... so you can do all your zone system metering, right it all down and come up with a correct exposure. Plus those white churches are great exercises for the zone system.
By the time you get the camera set up, shift the lens, tilt the lens, refocus, figure out the exposure and find your filter pack the building is almost ready to fall down.

 

[mitica100]

I have been shooting ghost towns for a while now. Decay is an ongoing process and I feel someone should take the time to record the-way-things-were before they're totally gone. That, and the lack of curious people asking if my 4x5 is a new digital camera. I like solitude...

 

[Drew B.]

Lets face it...old is better than new. Old has more character than new. Old looks better in b&w than new. Old has more history than new. Wood is better than fiberglass. (oops, got off the track there....but you get the idea.)

 

[dpurdy]

Clearly there are different strokes for different fokes but for me decay is real life. Decay isn't old it is new. It is nature reclaiming. I have no interest in photographing manicured things or attempts at avoiding nature with paint and concrete and potted plants. I like to see how nature makes creative use of everything. Nature is unstopable. Decay is life.

 

[reellis67]

... I feel someone should take the time to record the-way-things-were before they're totally gone...

I admit that this is certainly part of the appeal for me as well as what I mentioned in my previous statement. I've always been drawn to documentary photographs and making my own came as naturally as tripping the shutter. My own collection contains largely documentary photographs and my direction in life has always been steered by an insatiable interest in history.

- Randy

 

[Digidurst]

Hmmm... I had no idea that so many others enjoyed photographing old, decaying things. Now I could joke and say that now I feel so 'connected' to all of you and 'no longer alone' but seriously, I think that is where the appeal lies.... Images of decay allow us to enjoy a small feeling of connectedness with days gone by, with people who were here before us and the marks they left on this Earth. And I think a big part of the human condition is a strong desire to feel connected to one another.

 

[walter23]

I would agree with those who've said it's because older architecture and machinery is just more varied and interesting than modern. Yeah, I could go out and shoot the next Dead Link Removed, or Dead Link Removed at one of the millions of shiney new strip malls with a Tim Hortons, Wendy's, and a WalMart, but why would I want to?

 

[fparnold]

I think it's partly because you start with a well-defined object, with some degree of regularity, then it's allowed to "perform". Just a little irregularity adds color and tone. Personally, I also get the Ozymandias musings, about who or what was here when the buildings, etc, were in their prime.
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My father, who retired from teaching to return to farming, is driven to distraction by this trait, btw. He periodically complains that nobody except farmers pay any attention to barns until they're about to fall down, then they're surrounded by photographers.

 

[bjorke]

Why?

Fear of Death.

 

[John Kasaian]

"Old" isn't neccesarily "Decay" I'd say that I am more interested in beauty. I can see the beauty in rusted (decaying) junk, so I take pictures of it. I'd prefer to see a shiney restored '40 Packard than a stripped, rusted out '40 Packard.

I don't see beauty in road kill (also decaying) so I don't take pictures of flattened kittys.

"Worn" isn't neccesarily "Decay" either. Old worn tools for example tell a story, as does a old corral or old store front and often the story these things tell is beauty. They may well be in a state of decay as well, but it isn't the decay that I find attractive but the story these things tell.

My 2-cents anyway. Yeah, 6 more years and I qualify for the "seniors" discount!

 

[Campbell]

Our equipment influences us in more ways than we necessarily realize. One subtle way is that we tend to seek out images that will show our LF work to its best advantage, which means we tend to seek out subjects with a lot of detail and texture and that's something most decaying structures have in abundance. We also tend to like subjects close at hand and photographing old buildings generally doesn't involve a lot of walking. Then we also prefer subjects that allow us to comfortably use a tripod and decaying structures fit that bill too. In essence I think decaying subjects are so popular among LF photographers mostly, not exclusively but mostly, because they suit our equipment very well.

 

[athanasius80]

On a personal level...

1. Old stuff is prettier
2. Ambience
3. The creative challenge of making a photograph so evocative that you can feel the place on the paper.
4. Just because

Cheers!

 

[dphphoto]

Decay can be very attractive. At my age, I have to remind myself of this each morning when I look in the mirror.
Now, off to photograph some old things. No self-portraits, though.

 

[Tomasz Segiet]

All or most of the reasons above, plus one minor aspect of "documentary": many old, buildings here in Poland get renovated nowadays; and it is done in such a manner that they look as if built yesterday for yuppies or (their) children; a cross between disneyland and a condominium. Those buildings that still did not suffer this "renovation" process still say something about...(here insert the remarks of other members). When renovated - they become as fake antiques: somewhat tasteless and phoney in their shiny colours and right angles.
So, photographing them is an effort to document their documentariness before it vanishes.

 

[petesk]

A mate of mine once said: "You can buy anything 'renovated': the original is priceless".

 

[Hugo Zhang]

"His downcast eyes followed the silent veining of the oaken slab. Beauty: it curves, curves are beauty."

 

[fparnold]

Alternately,

"Little of all we value here
Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year
without both feeling and looking queer"
​

Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Deacon's Masterpiece"​

 

[m_liddell]

Being a roll film man myself, I just have to wonder why so many LFers are drawn to decay, destruction, or derelict sites and buildings as subject matter. (Don't derail the thread to deny it - you "know" it's true!)

It doesn't move in the wind

 

[Roger Hicks]

It doesn't move in the wind

My bloody brick outhouse did! It was built with virtually no footings (typical French rural outbuilding) and it blew over a few months after we moved in. I've never had the same faith in 'Built like a brick sh*t-house' ever since...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Digidurst]

My bloody brick outhouse did! It was built with virtually no footings (typical French rural outbuilding) and it blew over a few months after we moved in. I've never had the same faith in 'Built like a brick sh*t-house' ever since...

Cheers,

R.

I'm sorry about your outhouse but I did have to laugh at your predicament!

 

[reellis67]

My bloody brick outhouse did! It was built with virtually no footings (typical French rural outbuilding) and it blew over a few months after we moved in. I've never had the same faith in 'Built like a brick sh*t-house' ever since...

Cheers,

R.

I fell out of my chair laughing at that one! The worst part was I read it in my office...

- R

 

[Arglebargle]

I believe our attraction to decay is primal. It is a vital part of the circle of life, without decay, there can be no birth, or rebirth. The experience of whithering away to dust is an extremely powerful concept that can send shivers of dread down our spines. Someday I will also be worm food, some day my rib cage will collapse like an old rotting barn. It shows not only our mortality, but how life doesn't stop at death, that the cells that make up our bodies are ancient. What we are witnessing when we see decay is the most basic forms of life recycling the most complex. Rotten wood becomes soil in which seedlings may grow, and will one day also rot in an infinite cycle.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm sorry about your outhouse but I did have to laugh at your predicament!

Tell you what: I laughed too...

Who could resist?

It's in the far corner of the garden, over a traditional sh*t-pit (not even a septic tank, but a hole lined with loose-fitting tiles sideways on, and hadn't been used (by the look of it) for decades. The two-hole seat was crumbled almost to nothing and my wife put her foot through the floor. The pit is now filled in and there'sd about half a greenhouse there (I plan to finish it one day).

What's alarming is that it's about 40-50 feet from the well (not too bad) and 15-20 feet above it (not encouraging).

Cheers,

R.