For as long as I can remember holding a camera, I’ve been drawn to scenes that show disrepair and the passage of time — perhaps a level of brokenness or abandonment that speaks of good times long gone. I’m sure if I was able to find a Freudian analyst, he’d have a field day helping me figure out this attraction. Whatever. It leads to a compelling picture every once in a while.
Recent adventures in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama yielded quite a few opportunities to find scenes that are off-season — past their prime. I love the idea that there was a time of prosperity and now these places are in a new season — either a season of renewal, as this hundred year-old church under renovation and historic preservation, or one where the passage of time has rendered a property or home useless.
The church is pretty and quaint; this dilapidated home, however, calls to me. Who lived there? Why did they leave? What secrets are being reclaimed by the forest? It doesn’t just tell a story, it weaves a tale through the kudzu.
You are by no means alone in your love of the abandoned, derelict, decaying, whatever!
Thanks. It’s a funny thing to pursue. Thanks for the encouragement!
I am right over the state line in Pensacola! Let me know when you make another trek over this way, Maria!
Oh!!!!!
very nice Maria! 🙂
Beautiful, Maria!:)
Your photographs never fail to draw me in. I want to step inside that church, smell all the new and marvel at what has been lovingly preserved.
Even more, I want to gather my skirts and step into that rambling garden, peer into the windows, pick up shards lying about the yard, remnants of lives long ago. Where are they now, the people who lived there, and their descendants?
Oh my!!!! This is absolute poetry! I want to see what you see !