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Urban and Rural Exploration
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Strange
Ontario
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Exploring Ontario's history through its old, abandoned and ruined places. Haunted? I'm skeptical about ghosts, there are too many other explanations for flashes of light and odd sounds. I have never had a paranormal experience at any old place I've photographed. But I'm curious about all of it. There are too many interesting stories for anything paranormal to be discarded out of hand. I'm inspired by the mystery of the road not taken. I know that sounds corny, but I can't find a better way to describe it. Whatever happened to..., what if... why was that left there, like that?... If something is worn and old I want to see it. I especially like rural ruins and century-old city buildings. I like the details of workmanship in architecture and functional things like doorknobs, keys, and windows. Workmanship is art in an old place. Created by one person, curved just that way, in that colour with function. Art and engineering from (possibly) 100 or more years ago. Sometimes I think the old, ruined places we (as a civilization of people) leave behind are like the canaries in a mine. As everything marketable on our planet is used up, as we continue to paint ourselves into a corner with natural resources and treat our planet and its creatures like commodities, our own man made creations stand telling their story. I don't write a history of each place I photograph. The houses, the places, speak for themselves. The rest goes unsaid and often unheard. Little canaries warning that we can't go on turning everything into trash forever. Our history follows us, one way or another. I believe in "leave only
footprints and take only photographs" but, I admit I
have dug up and saved a few plants from abandoned
gardens. Living, growing plants should not be relics
left to die, strangled by (so-called) weeds. I also
photograph the wildflowers around Ontario. There
tend to be lots of tall grasses and wild plants at
ruined and forgotten places. Some are prettier than
others and some smell really great. Others, not as
much but beloved by local wildlife, insects
included. One more reason I almost never kill
spiders. We need them! I have been a location scout for filmmakers in Ontario. However, I am reluctant to give location information to people asking for help finding places to photograph. So, just don't ask. You can find locations yourself, start by exploring your own backyard. I am the founder of Ontario
Rural Ruins and a few other groups on
Flickr. The group began in 2007 and continues still.
I founded, run and help moderate other groups for
urban explorers and people who like history and a
bit of the paranormal. My photographs are not free to
take, use or borrow. I am not currently selling
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I am Canadian!
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