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Photographing Ruins
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by Shaun O'Boyle
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Ruins are one of the richest and most interesting photographic subjects to be found. By ruins I'm not necessarily
referring to old stone circles, columns and coliseums, although they are certainly not to be discounted. Many of the
ruins pictured here are recently abandoned sites, places that tell stories about the recent past of our culture, and
comment on our transition to the present. These sites have the content and material to keep a photographer fully
occupied with the task of making images and building stories from the rubble and fragments left behind. Ruined
buildings and sites are natural storytellers; they have been the containers that we fill with the stuff of living and work.
These ruins still carry on a complex dialogue with their surroundings; discovering and elaborating this dialogue is
part of the task when photographing these places. While there is no one way to photograph any subject, below are
some hints on how you might approach the task of building a story from the bits and pieces of a ruin.
Context
Your ruin needs to be placed in context, the landscape surrounding the site shows how it fits, or doesn't fit
with its environment. Go wide and step back to relate the subject with the landscape. Many of the older ruins
were built well before anything was near them, they were slowly encroached upon by sprawl, development
and the growing urban environment.
http://www.photo.net/architectural/ruins/ (1 of 19)7/3/2005 2:17:50 AM