The Warning Signs Alone Would Keep Me Out. But This Guy Goes Straight In… And The Result Is Incredible.

Photographer Matt Emmett makes it his goal to rediscover forgotten worlds all around us. His online portfolio, Forgotten Heritage Photography, focuses on showing these creepy and abandoned places to others.

‘No entry’; ‘access strictly prohibited’; ‘trespassers will be prosecuted’; common sights on perimeter fences around many of this country’s forgotten buildings or abandoned industrial sites. In some cases warnings of the potential dangers contained within or an ineffective deterrent against thieves and vandals. To the urban explorer / photographer these signs are the proverbial ‘red rag’ and serve to whet the appetite for the promise of hidden wonders that may lie beyond.

For those that ignore the warnings and climb the fences, what awaits is usually worth the risks.

Matt Emmett

Vast industrial spaces that feel more like an alien landscape or a poignant residential setting slowly surrenders to the inexorable advance of nature.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

Places once alive with sound and movement, now silent and still but no less sensory. Immense and powerful beauty resides in these forgotten places.

Matt Emmett

For some, just getting inside a location to experience this alternative form of sightseeing, is enough to satiate the desire to go where the powers that be tell us we shouldn’t.

Matt Emmett

But for others there is a need to capture the spirit of a location in words and pictures, giving others a metaphorical ‘leg-up’ over the fences and to walk them through the debris and rubble.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett falls into the latter of these groups.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

He travels regularly to places in the UK and in Europe, seeking out vast power stations and their cooling towers, steel works, mines, bunkers, tunnels, schools, engine sheds, hotels, castles and a myriad of other buildings.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

All have their own stories to tell in a variety of voices.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

Without the distraction, sounds and people who inhabited them, those stories are clear and strong and the character of the building is laid bare.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

You don’t need to know the exact history of these structures to know there WAS history.

Matt Emmett

Every button, panel, room and wall has a feeling.

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

Matt Emmett

Even when that feeling or history seems to be laced with darkness.

Matt Emmett

Matt and other urban explorers find a side to society that we so often miss. It’s lonely, dark and decrepit… but I can’t get enough of it. To see more of Matt’s awesome work, visit his Facebook page, Forgotten Heritage Photography.

Source: Matt Emmett

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