Urban Exploration Photography

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Urban exploration photography, also called urbex, is a fairly popular form of photography that primarily documents abandoned manmade places and objects. The photos can depict an entire deserted city or just a single neglected rusted car. Though the term has the word urban in it, it doesn’t restrict the photography to only urban environments. Urban exploration also frequently happens at decaying barns and houses in rural areas.

Risks Involved

The biggest downside to urban exploring is that it often involves trespassing and can endanger the explorer. Another risk is that the buildings and places are usually very old, rusty, and moldy and could make the person sick by breathing all that in.

Rewards

Despite those risks, when done carefully, urban exploration can be very rewarding. Not just for the adventure of it, but for the possibility of creating incredible photos. The photos can capture a place in a time and condition that no one has seen before. Decaying places and things rapidly change. If you go back to a place a year later it might be totally gone, collapsed in, or heavily vandalized. Also, those deserted places provide an interesting perspective into their history.

A good urbex photographer never damages or vandalizes the places they are exploring. The point isn’t to alter the scene, but to document it as-is and respectfully leave no matter the condition it is in.

My Urban Exploration Photography

Urban exploration photography has been one of my favorite forms of photography for almost my entire photography career. I lived in an area of Texas that had abandoned houses scattered about our area. My brothers and I enjoyed walking into them and looking at the artifacts left behind by the previous residents. They unveiled mysteries while creating more mysteries, I love the experience of it all. Then I started bringing my camera and documenting it.

My photos tend to focus less on the decay and decrepitness of the building or object. Instead, they instead focus on remnants of the presence of humans. I view each place I go to as historical moments to the everyday life people lived, especially when exploring homes. Monuments people will eventually destroy.

Nowadays, I’m very careful how I engage with urbex photography. I avoid places that have a lot of do not trespass signs. I also only do it during the daytime when I can see everything really well.

These are my urban exploration photoshoots, enjoy and leave a comment letting me know what you think of them: