Urban Exploration

Check out these resources about Michael Cook, an urban explorer in Canada. He explores and photographs sewers and tunnels. His photos are amazing!

Bldg Blog Interview
Cook's Website

This is very interesting to me because when I was in college and very seriously doing photography I did quite a bit of urban exploration myself. My favorite places to explore and shoot were Fort Pickens and an old house my dad bought to restore (but never did).
Fort Pickens is amazing but the best parts of the fort are now closed to the public. The best parts to explore were the old batteries that were completely submerged below the dunes. We used to go in there and turn out the flashlight and freak each other out. I loved looking at all the graffiti on the walls. Eventually they put up these huge iron doors to keep people out. A friend of mine who is in law enforcement encouraged us to not explore out there anymore. When we asked him why he said it was because some local Satan worshippers were using the place for rituals and sacrifices. He also said if we just had to go in, please take a pistol. No lie! I'm not sure if we ever went back in after that but it was a moot point since the doors went up pretty soon after that as well.
The old house was more accessible. I took quite a lot of photos there over the years. My favorites are the ones that my friends Todd and Susan posed for. Spooky!
My other favorite place to take photos was cemetaries. I love the statuary in the old ones. My best cemetary story is from Memphis. I had moved there to attend the Memphis College of Art (a disaster). One Sunday afternoon I went exploring and came across Elmwood Cemetary. I parked and went inside to wander around. The place is huge. I was shooting pics left and right when all of a sudden a guy in a pickup truck pulls up alongside me. He asks what I'm doing there and I tell him I'm taking pics for my college photo class. He relaxes at that and proceeds to tell me that it's cool if I come to take pics but would I come by the office and tell him I'm there because the cemetary isn't the safest place to be. At the time, it backed up to a rough housing development and many, many crimes were perpetrated on the cemetary grounds including murder and rape. He told me not to come in at night because they released vicious dogs on the grounds. When I told him I would heed his advice he gave me a mini-tour of the grounds. It was great. He even showed me where the famous people were buried like Kit Carson and I believe he told me that Elvis was originally buried there but they had to move him to Graceland because it was so crazy. He was a grizzled old fellow and he knew absolutely everything about the place. It was a great afternoon. I spent many an afternoon there shooting pictures. I hope that one day I can buy a negative scanner so I can share these pictures on the internet.
What a great time I used to have on my photographic expeditions. It makes me want to grab my camera and take off.