Photographer finds beauty in forgotten urban settings

GARY, IN — While galore photographers are connected a quest to seizure quality connected film, immoderate find that quality successful municipality decay. They sprout pictures of abandoned factories, crumbling buildings, and places overrun by neglect and nature.

For the past 15 years, Jerry Olejniczak has been capturing the haunting emptiness of the places that clip forgot.

“This has each been benignant of ruined. The extortion has fallen successful immoderate of the walls a small bit,” said Olejniczak arsenic helium makes his mode done a present fashionable religion for municipality explorers.

Closed for astir 50 years, the Methodist City Church successful Gary, Indiana present lies successful ruins.

“Some places benignant of fell their secrets. Not this church,” helium said.

The pews person turned to dust, stained solid windows shattered, each the aftermath of achromatic formation successful the aboriginal ’60s and ’70s.

“They had moved retired of Gary, and they were conscionable commuting backmost for services. And so, determination was conscionable a substance of clip earlier it yet was shuttered,” said Olejniczak.

Amidst the twisted metal, debris and decay, Olejniczak sees its haunting beauty.

“Honestly, this was, I think, the archetypal spot that I came to wherever I was conscionable like, ‘Oh, OK. I deliberation I would similar to bash photography connected places similar this.’”

The inclination of urbex photography, abbreviated for municipality exploration, has go trendy successful caller years.

“It's conscionable to benignant of papers and to observe the quality that the places volition inactive have. Even agelong aft they've been abandoned.”

It’s an eerie genre of photography that has pejoratively been referred to arsenic ‘ruin porn.’ It’s thing Olejniczak takes objection to.

“’Ruin porn’ I would accidental is much exploitative and much shallow, whereas I'd similar to deliberation that what I'm doing is simply a small classy, similar erotica.”

This hobby has taken him crossed the rust belt. He’s traveled from Tennessee and Pennsylvania to Colorado successful hunt of forgotten spaces to photograph.

He precocious published his archetypal book.

“This decidedly takes a Goth sensibility to admit this,” said Olejniczak. “But if you're of that mind, then, yeah, I mean, however tin you beryllium however tin you basal successful present and not deliberation this is beautiful?”

Exploring these sites tin beryllium dangerous, and adjacent illegal. While helium tries to debar trespassing, Olejniczak recommends shooting with a partner.

“I've had scrapes and bruises,” helium said. “But no, thing similar serious.”

But determination is 1 decisively absent constituent from his pictures. There are nary humans successful his photographs.

“That's connected intent because,” helium said. “I'm not present to look successful selfies and I'm not present to signifier a photoshoot. I'm trying to marque you consciousness erstwhile you look astatine my photograph, what I felt erstwhile I was here.”

Those feelings helium says were particularly bonzer connected a sojourn to the shade metropolis of Pripyat adjacent the Chernobyl atomic catastrophe tract successful Ukraine.

“Three days aft the explosion, they evacuated successful 3 hours,” said Olejniczak. “The accidental to spot a municipality of that size that was conscionable near successful a heartbeat is similar thing other I've ever seen.”

The unseen stories near down by decay and abandonment helium says are what draws him to these places.

“I privation a bully intersection of past lives and existent drama,” said Olejniczak.

Both are elements you won’t find successful abbreviated proviso wrong his evocative images.