While searching for guidance on my new photography interest, I’be found some fellow tradesmen who use space, specifically, abandoned space, as the subject in their work. Not to begrudge the traditional portrait, but, for my own work, I prefer a location or an object as the centerpiece to a series. There’s a kindred spirit in my new-found colleague, Canton photographer Lauren LaPigna.
She shoots in places I have not yet dared to enter — broken down schools and even an abandoned amusement park. Ready for creepy?
Check out:
http://www.lapintaphotography.com/portfolio/abandoned-amusement-park/
For years I’ve been building the nerve to go urban spelunking like Lauren, or like the photographer who goes by FlikrDave in Milwaukee. His wreck of a couch appears in this article’s top photo. I’ve always worried about my bodily safety too much to enter one of these old mills or hotels. How does Lauren get over that? I asked her.
The closest I’ve been to “brave” so far behind the lens has been sticking the nose of my camera into a tight corner or draping it over the balustrade of a tight staircase. It would take a lot to get me to risk rotten floorboards. There was a story on Columbus radio a year ago abut two kids getting electrocuted after breaking into an old building. That pretty much sealed the chapter or urban break ins for me. And yet, I WANT those weary broken desks in my viewfinder.
Maybe I’ll settle on junked cars. Or ruined bikes!
Mariella Mehr — Poet, Memoirist, Acivisit, Survivor Not many Roma divulge their experience of the Holocaust. Unlike the many Jewish organizations which provide documentary evidence, . . .