Abandoned and forgotten houses and castles

The home is the heart of life, a place where events both important and mundane move across the floors, up the stairs, and through doorways. When the lives that fill them move on to other locales – or even beyond the veil – the home seems to resonate with that absence, even when time seeps relentlessly inside the threshold.

 

While some homes have been left for decades and are as much nature and decay as living space, others seem only momentarily abandoned. Inside these, tins of food are still in the cupboards, there’s a plate resting on a table, and clothes hanging – albeit shabbily – on orderly rods inside the closets.

 

Even children’s rooms, once-colorful toys in hibernation beneath the dust, seemingly waiting for the return of their now-undoubtedly adult owners. It’s an intriguing sight, but one tinged with deep sorrow, a tableau of loss and absence that looks at once both familiar and unknown.

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We created this series to capture the stages of loss, to illustrate that – much like organic subjects like plants or people – houses and castles decay gradually as well. The familiar, recognizable elements – books on a castle’s bookshelf, a forgotten ashtray on a home’s table – serve as reminders that even our own busy homes can be reclaimed by silence, in time.

 

Our camera’s lens captured this unique, still moment in time for each dwelling we visited, from the surprisingly numerous smaller abandoned homes to large, imposing castles left to rot. Neglect threatens the remnants of humanity inside, but the buildings’ transformation is something beautiful in itself: nature yawning over a roof and climbing walls to crumble them by degrees, taking back what was once her own.

 

Enjoy these glimpses of what remains – these may very well be the last glimpses into each scene before they are reclaimed by time and nature.

Every photo of this gallery is for sale as limited edition art print in the printing of your choice. Just contact us, we are happy to help you further on