# 'True' Decay Artists



## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Hello guys,
So I'm doing a school project abnd I have chosen to base it around dereliction and how nature's force ('force' is the brief for the task) overcomes man-made constructions. I need to research some arists, and of course we are all budding artists, and are indeed artists in the community. However, I do need to research a proper artist or two which probably has had work purchased by galleries etc, who is interested in the weathering of constructions and ruins etc, decay, dereliction. He can be a photographer, painter, whatever, but I need tto find one.

Can you guys help me out?

Thanks,
BTP Liam


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## UrbanX (Jan 19, 2013)

Ginasphoto on here sells a lot of prints, has exhibitions etc.


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Sounds good, I found this guy who is very interesting, and could be good to make my own urbex model eventually which he seems to direct me towards.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=D...e=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&ei=WpH6UMjoEunM0QXNyoHADQ
He uses mould and lets it grow over his cardboard models.

UrbanX I will probably include something on yourself too, being one of the biggest UK explorers!


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## UrbanX (Jan 19, 2013)

BTP Liam said:


> UrbanX I will probably include something on yourself too, being one of the biggest UK explorers!



Aww... Don't be daft... I'm only 5'6"


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Hah! Would you be able to answer a few questions on your opinion/meaning behind abandoned photography please? The teacher was saying it would get you good marks to contact artists


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## UrbanX (Jan 19, 2013)

Cool no worries, do you want to send me a PM with some specific questions? 
I'll do my best, but don't really consider myself an artist!


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Ok thanks, I only really want your views that we probably all relate to anyway, just I need it to come straight from you. For instance 'the photos capture the spirit of the place, which you don't get with refurbished historic sites' etc. I heard your radio report which put us explorers in really the best light, and you were saying the kind of thing I'm after in that.


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## UE-OMJ (Jan 19, 2013)

BTP Liam said:


> UrbanX I will probably include something on yourself too, being one of the biggest UK explorers!




   I bet you're chuffed to bits with that.


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Hah he kind of is let's be honest!


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## UE-OMJ (Jan 19, 2013)

Yeh, he really is. Right at the top of the list near me


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## UrbanX (Jan 19, 2013)

Just under you...giving you a leg up through a window, or a man hole...


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## AllyB (Jan 19, 2013)

Have a look at Eugene Richards 'The Blue Room' pictures: http://www.eugenerichards.com/ They might be rurex shots but they're far more interesting than the bland architectural stuff that most people churn out.


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

*Study on Gina Soden*

This was for my art coursework, but I thought why not stick it up here, might as well eh!

Gina Soden
Urban exploration is a hobby of mine, involving the investigation of historic structural remains (not usually urban either, just the name for it). While it has a mass of highly skilled photographers who document these surreal locations, few actually sell themselves as professional artists, instead, sticking to sharing their work amongst members of their own community online. This made it difficult to find someone to take inspiration from, who is an artist with their own original work. However, I came across a woman named ‘Gina Soden’, who is a professional photographer dedicated to the dereliction addiction. 
To set herself apart from every other explorer, of which her work’s aesthetics are by no means unique, she stresses how rather than offering a documentary approach to the photography of structural ruin, she instead tries to focus on the present, depicting a narrative via photographic composition, portraying the life that still goes on in these skeletal buildings. Soden emphasises the process of decay, and the natural force of weathering, collapse, and foliage, which eventually gets the better of man’s attempts to claim land their own. She describes it as a “painfully slow transformation after years of abandonment” in which one can imagine the force from the weight of the building itself actually cracking it away, giving way under its own weight. Hospital Corridor gives the impression of self-collapse, detailing the frail glass sides to the walkway, succumbing to the plant-life cascading in.
Some of her photographs use High Dynamic Range photo editing techniques, known as HDR which involves individually selecting the exposure of multiple components to photographs, so that the full depth can be shown in all areas of the photo. One most simple example would be to expose the sky correctly (which would leave the foreground dark), and expose the foreground correctly (which leaves the sky too bright). The foreground and the sky from the two images would then be combined to give a single image result depicting the sky and building with a full range of tones each. This gives images such as Refulgent a glowing and characterful, painted quality. She enjoys use of this technique because it strays from the documentary approach to urban exploration photography, focusing less on providing a historic, accurate, impression of places, to capture the intricacies of sites for future generations, but instead to use HDR to give a hallucinatory appearance to her work, similar to the feeling you get when you visit such places. I always find it incredible how you can find yourself in places you would never thought you would ever get to see, which embodies a bizarre conjugation of decaying history, with natural weathering. Her work gives the viewer this feel. The HDR also gives surfaces and edges a bloom aesthetic which appears to glow, almost iridescently, which could be likened to the spiritual character of the building having an outward effect onto the explorer, or observer of the photo. Perhaps the character of those who once occupied the places can be felt in Soden’s use of HDR. These effects are furthered with use of ‘tone mapping’. Part of the narrative which is felt in her works is built by the impressive nature of the sights she captures, which leads the viewer to wonder how she gained access to them. The simple answer is by trespass, which although not illegal, could put her in a short-term sticky situation, adding a sense of urgency to her work, and reflects a stunt-like quality in it by revealing the not-usually seen parts of the world – this is clearly shown in the highly impressive building seen in Protected Monument. Gina Soden also stresses how she wants to grasp the calmness and beauty of her finds, which I can describe as a serenity which is instilled by the surreal nature of these places. She portrays the calmness amongst the destructive force behind the architectural metamorphosis.
A painter, Mie Olise Kjaergaard, uses acrylic on canvas to portray the sense of space in abandoned buildings, such as the stilted fishing villages seen in The dreadful sound when I went fishing. The thick and gestural application of the paint gives the buildings a rickety character, showing the constantly decaying nature of the buildings, similar to what Gina is trying to express, as their mass hangs on a knife-edge of collapse. Yet, the spacious sense creates stillness and awe like that of Soden’s photographs.


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## BTP Liam (Jan 19, 2013)

Thanks, the Blue Room looks ideal!


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## UrbanX (Jan 19, 2013)

Just merged your other thread with this one as it's the same subject


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## sam_north (Jan 24, 2013)

BTP Liam said:


> Hello guys,
> So I'm doing a school project abnd I have chosen to base it around dereliction and how nature's force ('force' is the brief for the task) overcomes man-made constructions. I need to research some arists, and of course we are all budding artists, and are indeed artists in the community. However, I do need to research a proper artist or two which probably has had work purchased by galleries etc, who is interested in the weathering of constructions and ruins etc, decay, dereliction. He can be a photographer, painter, whatever, but I need tto find one.
> 
> Can you guys help me out?
> ...


there is a book called "beauty in decay" by "urbex" (got a pic of someone walking up stairs in a gas mask)
that is usefull for visual reference.


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## UrbanX (Jan 24, 2013)

That book should really help actually Liam. There is also now a sequel to it.


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## vmlopes (Jan 24, 2013)

sam_north said:


> there is a book called "beauty in decay" by "*urbex*" (got a pic of someone walking up stairs in a gas mask)
> that is usefull for visual reference.



Its by Romany WG..........or Jeremy Gibb as his proper name.......nice bloke and have done a fair few explores with him


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## Ninja Kitten (Jan 24, 2013)

try this guy..
https://www.facebook.com/david.poxon.520


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