Featured Photographer: Donald Attenberger
When I first tell people that I explore the depths of abandonment in rust belt cities, I usually see a look of bewilderment on their faces. After showing them my photographs they usually ask, “how do you find these places?” The answer is they are all around us — I just take the time to explore them.
What I find is more than just rubble and ruins. I find the deteriorating evidence of a time that has passed us by. A sad recollection of what once was. A once bustling plant that fed many families, a house that once saw children grow up. Now, all that is left is the foundation of a deteriorating community. People may have fled; progress may have forced these structures into nothing more than a mere, irrelevant eye sore. As time passes us by and progress continues wayward into the future, these structures will become extinct — either replaced with a more cost-efficient and generic version of what once was, or an urban green space. Let us not forget what we once were, and if we do have the ambition and desire to recreate our once great legacy, let us not make the same mistakes of the past.
Thank you to the Jenny for taking the time to look at these images and finding the same beauty that I find in them!
-Donald Attenberger