Documenting - American Wasteland - Buildings

I think my fascination with abandoned, unused buildings started early with summers on my grandparents’ farm. Before I was up and running around the farm barefoot in the summers, my grandpa was a Wisconsin dairy farmer. He suffered a stroke in the early 70s that left him unable to care for his livestock. Not being the type to quit he sold his cows and started putting the energy he had into farming dent corn.

The big red barn sat at the end of the driveway and from what I remember in my 16 years they lived there, no one went in or out. I was scared of the barn, grandma warned regularly of the pit left where a silo had once stood and she was afraid I would fall in. I never did see the inside of the big barn, it still stands to this day, but I watched the outside age in the Wisconsin elements. Grandpa would use his open side sheds to store his tractor and unsold corn. So the barn remained a mystery to me.

Even when I was younger I was fascinated with empty structures. The stories they heard, why they would sit empty. It made me sad, I could see the energy draining from the places as days turned to weeks turned to months turned to years. On and on till the doors hanging off, windows were broken, and the structure starts to fall to the ground.

The fascination did not leave as I grew older and had children of my own. I remember more than once I stopped at forgotten buildings with them. I had to stop once I realized the 3 of them did not have the same fear I did, it is hard to keep an eye on 3 little energy generators moving in 3 different directions in not-so-safe areas. Once I started working at my photography more one of the first things I went to document, after my own family, was abandoned everything, but buildings are my true love.

These buildings will be a theme in much of my work. I find a charm, character, and story hidden in these places that will one day give to nature.