As promiced ... Following up my Urbex talk last week

[Brian]

Sorry for the lateness of this (and if its in the wrong place) but I am posting here some interesting Urban Exploration sites for anyone who wants to investigate further .. I hope they can wet your appitite for buildings of an abandoned nature but as was pointed out on the night .. URBEX can be extremely dangerous and is usually illegal.

Picture sites
http://www.opacity.us/ Genaral global site
http://www.simoncornwell.com/urbex/ UK sanitoriums and insane hospitals
http://www.abandoned-places.com/ another general global site and was my first tast of the hobby
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... =430373437 Victoria arches (Manchester Air raid shelters
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/ I know I have posted this site before and raised a few comments about the way the girls trip to Pripyat is portrayed but still it shows some moving scenes of the abandoned city.

http://weburbanist.com/ not just URBEX but architectural design and other cool stuff

Forum's
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/ UK's largest urbexing forum (take some of it with a pinch of salt)

Others
http://www.darkview.de/ Not truley URBEX but check out Annies portfolio and the "Forgotten places" section .. She has extensively used places like the abandoned Kasteel Mesen in Belgium for model shoot's

Comments and links are always welcome .. I hope you enjoy browsing

[Tom McQ]

Wow, it's funny you should mention this because my cousin recently brought URBEX to my attention and when I looked at some of the sites, I was taken aback by the great photography opportunities. There is the element of danger of course, not to mention the trespass, but I find it all very fascinating and would love to join anyone local who's going out on such an exploration.

Tom.

[keith richardson]

Hi Brian,
Sorry now that I missed your talk last week it sounds like it touches on one of my favourite areas for subject matter. I am often looking out for sites to visit although there seems to be very little around here to get your teeth into.
One of my favourite and insprirational sites is by award winning photographer Jens Hartmann and you can see his work here.
He also does a fine line in HDR but I have to admit that at times he gets carried away with that side of things and they are a bit much even for me.
It also helps if you can read German.

http://www.bilder-factory.com/main.htm

Check out the shot 'Kraftwerk' in the landscape section, one of my all time favourite shots.

regards, keith.

[John]

Keith, great content but what an annoying web site!

[keith richardson]

You are right there john, but he's German. I work for a German company and they never makes things easy or straight forward.
But some of the pictures are worth the aggravation.

regards,
keith.

[Brian]

Thanks guys for the nice comments I will post any more links as and when I find them .. (see below )

Keith .. I know the WebUrbanist site has a nice section on HDRI and the mad colours I think really fit these warped locations .. so I thikn they go well with your style ... Maybe we can talk some time at the club

Publications :-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... eda3365-21 a rather nice book that may end up going round the club (look after it John ) it covers the air raid shelters, Guardian exchange as well as a lot of the known canal tunnels in town .. but also the "street" below Deansgate.
http://www.jinxmagazine.com/ Jinx the longest running publication on the phenomenon

Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration Wikipedia entry with some further links and if any one is interested, a list of movies aetc that have had Urbex in them .. (Session 9 is rather cool for the stunning Danvers)

A few YouTube entries
Mesen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2pKoh5RSZc

Miranda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87srrNbC ... re=related

Whittingham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grpF1J-Ex6o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSbTi6zj ... re=related

Cane Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ua9gzY ... re=related A general wander

Pripyat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU8mSRuE2NE rather moving

Anyway more posts to come when I get my hands on some

[Tracey McGovern]

Hi Brian
Better late than never but I wanted to thank you for the talk you did the other week, I found the whole thing very fascinating. You don't realise what hidden treasures there are within the areas we live. I know that getting into these places means trespassing and while I don't think I would have the bottle to do it myself, I think it's great that some people out there are willing to explore these sites and photograph them, afterall it's all part of the history of that building and should be recorded. It's just a shame to see those beautiful buildings being left to crumble away. I've had a look of most of the links you have uploaded, I found the Chernobyl one really eerie but fascinating.
Great talk - it certainly was an eye opener.
Best Wishes
Tracey

[Tom Gerrard]

Last year I was wombling around Prague and I came across a Photographic Exhibition being exhibited in what seemed to be a disused chapel. The exhibition consisted of huge photographs in colour and B&W taken in Chernobyl after the nuclear reactor disaster of 1986.
I will not go into details about pictures, but they were possibly the most powerful, horrifying and thought provoking images I’ve ever seen.
In some pictures the photographer was holding a Geiger counter showing extremely high levels of radiation that still existed whilst showing some people who insisted on staying in their homes.
Stories of people looting worthless goods (contaminated) and residents torching their homes and contents to prevent this were also portrayed. Making fire only increases the level of radioactivity with obvious consequenses.
Later that evening I was sitting in a down-town honkey talking to guy about this exhibition. It soon became obvious that he was an enthusiastic amateur photographer and also very knowledgeable about this exhibition.
Half way through the conversation he exclaimed that this was my lucky day and that the photographer had just walked into the bar.
I immediately went over to him and introduced myself and he turned out to be a very charming man who could speak enough English for us to us to have a conversation about his work and experiences in Chernobyl.
An unbelievable coincidence, but one I will always remember. With his permission I took a couple of not very good shots of him, but I think I’ve captured the personality of the man, his charm, his outstanding bravery and his unquestionable ability as a brilliant photographer. You can find out more at
http://www.spectrumpictures.vasku

Regards, Tom.