Blog

‘Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?’ Specials: Ghost Town

I can’t think of many better ways to spend your day then at a ghost town. When travelling to new places i always try and see if an abandoned town of some sort is around as it always makes for atmospheric photos and a good chance to pump up your adrenaline as your mind plays tricks on itself.

Today i had the chance to shoot snowboarding at an abandoned mining town in Colorado and it was one of the highlights of my trip. The day included a military style mission getting from our drop off point through a clearing into the town as i attempted to run with 30kgs of camera gear to avoid being spotted and arrested for trespassing. Luckily the day passed without much incident, we got a few shots and spooked ourselves a little. Always a good day out.

Here’s a few ghost towns i’ve been to over the last few years. I find modern ones tend to be far more scary than the ancient ones……

The two above are an abandoned mining town in Hokkaido, Japan. Everything has been demolished except the movie theatre and hospital and the forrest has grown deep around it. The hospital is unbelievable. Its about 3 stories high and so big. As you walk into each ward shivers go down your spine.

These images are the town of Kayakoy in Southern Turkey. Now this place is more beautiful than scary as the town has long been deserted. It was a greek town until 1923 when all the inhabitants were forced to migrate back to Greece from Turkey leaving the town completely abandoned. In amongst  the ruins we actually found the most amazing restaurant with some of the nicest red wine i’ve had in a long time. Not spooky at all!

Which leads us onto today. The town was only abandoned in the 80′s and very much all of it is still intact. Above is someones telephone and the scoring board in the bowling alley. Hopefully i’ll make it back to this great town another time as i’d love to shoot there again, military style mission and all.