19/11/2011

100 Abandoned Houses Project.

Kevin Bauman is a photographer who decided to photograph the concept of abandonment as a creative outlet from his professional work, and as a way of exploring his city of Detroit. As the number of things he photographed increased, it naturally led to this project. A lot of his first photographs were in black and white but as the project began to take form he converted to full colour photo's. Here is my selection of his photo's i thought i'd share. These eight are probably my favourites, but this could change as easily as the weather.

The reason i want to share this on my blog is simply because i find the project interesting. I'm not a photographer, and there are no direct links i could really take from this to add to my illustration work but i like the concept. I've always been interested in abandoned properties, it really makes you think about what happened before, who has explored before you, are you the first to find something new in an old place? I think that most people seeing houses like this would see "ugly" but i see adventure. I takes me back to my childhood when my friends and i would stumble across one of these on our travels, find crazy old documents and writing on the walls. It was like walking into a ghost house, exciting!

Another factor i love about this is the idea of change. Houses like these aren't like the pristine suburb exactly-the-same houses you see all the time in real life. They decay, they rot, the weather can tear a house apart. When i entered houses like this i would have changed things, moved things, added footprints. Trees grow around the houses, taking them into their environment.











I don't have any justification as to why this would be linked to my illustration work apart from something i read the other day in Paul Arden's book, 'It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be:'

To be original, seek your inspiration from unexpected sources.


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