The Abandoned and the Decayed....Finding Beauty Where You Least Expect It

I sometimes find myself taking photographs of things that....well...aren't so pretty. Things I drive by on my way through our flood-ravaged town that has never recovered from last March's overflowed river. Buildings that have not been occupied for years that have an overgrowth of weeds and seem to be collapsing on themselves. Or other such strange sights. Pretty? no. Saleable? Probably not...but, interesting, just the same (I hope!) Enjoy.

Above, this school building in Brockton, Massachusetts caught my eye. Rusty, symmetrical, and even bearing a sign that says "26 School St." Cool!

Above, the same building, along with some (real) crows that were flying outside my window. I opened both files in Photoshop and layered one onto the other, then added some contrasting and selective coloring for a surreal effect.

Here is a house to be demolished about 2 miles from my house. I just thought it looked interesting with all the dirt piled in front and the pieces of random leaves and dirt on top. And the concaved roof and chipped chimney are cartoonish.

Above, a building I drove by in Taunton, Massachusetts. I really have no idea what the graffiti writing says- something about winning and losing- maybe related to politics? But I took it because of the weird little alien in the second window from the left holding a real estate company sign. Creepy..

Above: an old barn door seen somewhere during one of my "country" drives.

Above: this old building caught my attention when I was antique shopping in Chepachet, RI. Its lower half seems too low to have ever been habitable, maybe a shed? But check out the roof! And the chimney here is just spectacularly tall. Finally the crazy growth of vines and twigs just makes the whole thing totally surreal.

Above- garage windows, broken fence, and snapped twigs. Narragansett, RI.

Above, this barn shed stands alone near an old corn mill in southern Rhode Island.

Above, this house is on the same street as the barn. The window is just fallen inside itself, pane and all. It even had Christmas lights on it last year, which I thought was strange...

 And finally, above is an old colonial house in Mystic, Connecticut that I spotted while leaving a nature center there last winter. It is a huge house, very beautiful, but neglected and covered in vines and berries. Curiously, next door and across the street are two very gorgeous, and very lived-in, houses that are well cared for.