urbanexploration

Photographer Finds Abandoned Cold War Nuclear Fallout Shelter

The Cold War is the conventional name for the period of political and military competition between two blocs led by the US and the USSR. This rivalry was mainly ideological and economic, intensified by the conventional and nuclear arms race.

Photos of an Abandoned Underground Ammo Factory in Albania

In the 1960s and ‘70s, the town of Poliçan was one of the largest and most important armaments centers in Albania. For security reasons, most information about the site was top secret and the town itself was closed to foreigners.

Photographer Uncovers the Soviet Underworld Below Tbilisi, Georgia

Beneath the streets of Tbilisi lies a network of tunnels, bomb shelters, and Soviet-era chambers that many locals know nothing about. Over the past several months, photographer David Tabagari has been exploring this silent underworld with extraordinary results.

The Lost America Project: 30-Years of Urban Exploration Light Painting

It was the late-eighties. I had been working at Galoob Toys as a designer on the Micro Machines line, creating cars and playsets for several years. A dream job, drawing and painting cars and roadside architecture for a living, but I also craved something different that I could do for personal work.

Photographer Captures the Crumbling Luxury of an Abandoned French Chateau

French photographer Romain Veillon recently had the chance to explore a famous old chateau that represented the height of luxury in 1901. Now abandoned, the chateau in Veillon's images shows how the ravages of time spare no second thought for riches, leaving the place, quite literally, in tatters.

The Sarcophagus: Photographing the Most Radioactive Places in Chernobyl

It’s been 3 years since the giant, 36,000-ton New Safe Confinement (better known as The Arch) was put over the damaged old sarcophagus that helps contain the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. A symbolic moment that also summed up my 10 years of work documenting the Chernobyl Zone. However, just as the building of the new sarcophagus didn't finish the work inside related to eliminating the radioactive threat, I still have a reason to come here.

I Dropped My Camera in Crude Oil… and It Survived

This past week, I had a bit of an accident with my Fujifilm X-T1 while doing some urban exploration in an abandoned fuel bunker. To cut a long story short, I ended up going for a swim in very oily water in a large partially flooded pump room with my camera.

My Visit to the Abandoned Radioactive City of Pripyat

Before you read the rest of the article, and it will be a long read, please allow me to share a few thoughts with you. Visiting the abandoned city of Pripyat and the disaster site of Chernobyl was an experience that I was looking forward to for a very long time.

Photographing the Famous Abandoned Church Full of ‘Ghosts’

In this blog I would like to show you one of the scariest churches I have ever visited, back in March 2015. The church is located in a small town in the Czech Republic, and it was originally built in the 14th century.

15 Photos of Abandoned Bedrooms I Found While Exploring

The bedroom is one of the most personal spaces in a house, hotel, or any other kind of building. It’s a place where my imagination can go wild. When I stand in an abandoned bedroom I’d like to think, "What happened here?."

Photos Take Us Inside Nara Dreamland, An Abandoned Theme Park in Japan

Nara Dreamland was a theme park in Japan that was built back in 1961 and inspired by Disneyland. After the number of visitors dropped, the theme park was permanently closed in 2006 and has been abandoned ever since. French photographer Victor Habchy took his camera into the run-down park to capture what it looks like after 10 years of neglect.

Eerie Photos of an Abandoned Animal Testing Facility

About 5 years ago, the last employees that worked here left. The company was bought by a Swiss giant in the industry and they decided to move the facility. The site this facility was built on was rented, but the new owners did not renew the contract.

This New Documentary Follows the Top Urbex Photographers in Europe

The best Urbex photographers in Europe—13 young shooters from the cities of Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague and Bratislava—are the subject of the latest documentary generating some hype in the photo world. It's called Run The World, and its first trailer is dripping with a devil-may-care attitude.

Photographer Sneaks Into Radioactive Ghost Towns in Fukushima

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was devastated by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the nuclear disaster caused a major evacuation and the creation of an exclusion zone around the old plant. Five years later, a photographer has ventured into the zone to deliver photos to the outside world.

Photographing ‘The World’s Most Haunted Island’ in Venice

Who wouldn’t want to explore one of the world’s most haunted places given the chance? Okay, on second thought, maybe most people... Well, while on holiday with my family in Venice, I was recently given that chance and I wasn’t going to turn it down.

Shooting One of the Most Beautiful Abandoned Buildings in the World

Once this was the most glorious building of Romania but since 1990 it’s been abandoned and slowly but surely falling apart. The building is now listed as a historic monument by the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs of Romania.

Photos of Abandoned Places Found in New York City

For the past few years, photographer Will Ellis has been locating, exploring, and documenting obscure abandoned places in New York City. His images show everything from the ruins of old hospitals to abandoned subway terminals -- and sometimes the photos are one last glimpse of those spaces before they're reclaimed or reduced to rubble by developers or the government.

A Time-Lapse Journey Into the Sewer System Beneath Manchester, England

Photographer CJ from substormflow is passionate about exploring sewer systems, and he wants to show the world the unique underground architecture that most people never get to see. The video above is a glimpse into the hidden system of old culverts and sewers beneath the bustling city of Manchester in England.

Forgotten Countryside Homes

What leads a family’s decision as they decide to stand up, open their door and walk out, leaving everything behind? Forgotten homes sit scattered across our country like eerie time capsules filled with stories, rotting away under the unforgiving power of nature.

Urbex Photographer Comes Across Abandoned Film School Full of Photo History and Gear Galore

Johnny Joo is a name you might recognize. Not too long ago we featured a series of images Joo captured at a ‘train graveyard’ hidden in the forests of North Carolina. This time, we’re back with some more recent urbex work of his that takes us into the ruins of an abandoned film school that was chock full of items that are doubly interesting to us as photographers.

Urbex Photographer Discovers Eerie ‘Train Graveyard’ in North Carolina Forest

One of the draws of Urban Exploration photography, or Urbex, is the chance that you'll discover and photograph something truly strange and unique. A building abandoned for so long that nobody realizes the treasures hidden within. Or, in this case, a 'train graveyard' with over 70 dilapidated subways, trains and busses in the middle of a North Carolina forest.

Stories Like This are Why Urbex Photogs are So Secretive About Where They Shoot

The world of Urbex (short for "Urban Exploration") photography is a secretive one. In general, Urbex photographers keep purposely silent on the specific locations where they've shot, and for the most part, it's not because they want to keep these dilapidated finds entirely to themselves.

The reason why asking an Urbex photographer where a photo was taken is likely to be met with a vague answer or none at all is perfectly illustrated by the story of the Belgian snow cats in the photo above.

Urbex Photographer Threatened with a 15K Euro Fine and Jail Time After Run In With Authorities

The dangers of urban exploration photography are well-known. However, despite this danger, it’s not often we hear of any big names in Urbex photography having major accidents or run-ins with the law. That changed a bit this week when a photographer who goes by the pseudonym The Other Side shared the story of how he was threatened with serious legal consequences for photographing a partially abandoned French factory.