Take only photographs, leave only footprints.

Urban Exploration, Urbexing or Urbex. Whatever you want to call it, it's is a growing interest among photographers and not just photographers either.

Back many years ago when I was eighteen I bought a Ricoh XR500 35mm SLR, it was my first real camera. Most people had small cartridge cameras back then and 35mm was a much more difficult format to use or at least master. Many a roll of film was deemed useless whilst trying different settings but nowadays since the digital revolution hit us you can experiment to your hearts content and see the results more or less there and then.

With digital becoming as popular as it is, so many of the subjects have now been exhausted. Thousands upon thousands of landscape photographs regardless of their quality are now becoming just another landscape. portraits, sports, B/W as well as colour popping and HDR techniques are following in the same vein.

Don't get me wrong - people are still producing some beautiful photographs and images and I still shoot landscapes and do a little colour popping and HDR myself, but I can't help thinking how the world is yearning for something different to look at and that's where Urban Exploration comes in.

Of course it can be dangerous entering a building in poor condition and it's also illegal unless you gain permission to enter the property from the owner. But truthfully, the worse the condition - the better the photography. Some properties if you're lucky will still contain some artefacts, some books, some furniture, newspapers, a clock or a picture on the wall. Some places just appear as thought the inhabitants just got up and walked out!

Factories, old business's that have been closed down quickly can give you some amazing photographs as quite often the both the machinery and some of the produce still remain on board in the same position as when 'stop' on the machine was pressed for the final time. But for atmosphere I think that abandoned hospitals and asylums with their beds still in place have something about them that really spook me as do the underground tunnels which is all part of the experience that makes the photography so rewarding.

Unfortunately if this type of exploration photography becomes too popular then greater measures by the authorities will be put in place, especially if people continue to enter properties without permission and steal the artefacts. Already police authorities have warned openly against these activities.

It's important to remember that........

If you steal - you're a thief,

If you graffiti - you're a vandal,

and if you take only photographs and leave only footprints.......

then you're an Urban Explorer.

Michael Stretton