Creating depth in your pictures is an important part of photography, it draws the viewer into the frame of reality you capture. I learned this in a first-year photography course at my university and I imagine almost all courses teach the fundamental Rules of Composition. To force the viewer to regard a two-dimensional image as a three-dimensional space fascinated me. I suppose that’s why I became interested in ghost buildings.
Now most people will not know what a ghost building is, so I will explain. You might be imagining a haunted house, but that is not entirely correct. A ghost building is the architectural remains that are left behind when half of a conjoined building is demolished. The wall that the two buildings shared then is left with an impression of it’s recently destroyed counterpart.
I suppose that’s why I fell in love with them as a subject. A building leaving a mark so distinct that you can still see what it’s interior looked like even after it had been killed. That’s why I suppose they’re called ghost buildings, I imagine ghosts are much the same.
I first began photographing ghost buildings during my architecture degree, where I had opted to take some introductory photography courses as electives on a whim. I hadn’t really ever considered photography but I thought it would be easy as a bird course. It was after the first week when our professor had given us an assignment to go out into the city to do some urban shoots. This is where I fell in love with photography and thrived. My love of architecture had given me an appreciation for the beauty to be found in cities. So, when I found the ghost buildings I fell in love.
My first ghost building was simple. It was in an up-and-coming part of town that mixed its old brickwork heritage with the chic hipster aesthetic of boutiques and artisanal shops. A recent townhouse had been demolished downtown in order to build some new shops and when I saw it it immediately stuck out.
When I tell you it was perfect, it was. The blank brick wall that had been previously covered by a townhouse mapped a two story house and attic. A staircase cut diagonally through the middle with worn wallpaper accenting the different rectangles where rooms used to be. I imagine it being so perfect was what gave me my intense obsession. Or maybe it was getting such a good grade on the assignment.
And that’s how it went for the next couple of years, I continued to take photography courses. I really got into it, you know? It was hobby that I would travel to different cities after, always taking pictures of urban decay or abandoned structures. However, ghost building’s always intrigued me most of all.
So when I was travelling to a different city and saw a ghost building when I arrived at my hotel, you could believe I was ecstatic. It was perfect too, perhaps better than the one that had caught my attention originally. It was an impression of a small one-story building, only having around two rooms. I asked around and it was apparently a small local clothing store 20 years ago. Now, it only left behind the vintage wallpaper of a store floor and outlines of partitioned changing rooms.
What caught my eye most was the graffiti. There were several shadowy silhouettes painted on the wallpaper that simulated an inhabited store. There were four ghostly figures in total. I had seen graffiti like this previously so it wasn’t too odd. Artists would simulate crowded rooms or busy stores to give life to the flat spaces. This one was different though, it stuck out to me as not trying to bring life to the space, but as trying to elevate the aspect of death it carried. To tell you it was a perfect specimen would undersell it. I suppose I should have taken that feeling as an omen though.
So I got my camera and did a small shoot of the wall that turned out great. My photographs perfectly captured the eerie aura that had caught my eye. Then I went on with my day, the wall not quite leaving my mind.
I had gone out to the bar to appreciate the nightlife that night when I encountered the wall again. I had seen some attractive people around and was hoping I could score. I wasn’t so lucky but it was as I was coming back from the bar where it all went strange. I was just arriving back at my hotel when I happened to glance at the old clothing store’s wall. It didn’t sense but it looked like the silhouettes had moved. There was still the same number of shadows but they were in different locations throughout the wall. And there was a door. A normal wooden door that had not been in any of my other pictures. It was at the left side of the wall where I assumed the front door had been around when it was still a real building.
Now, I know this was dumb. It was a stupid decision but I went up to the door and opened it. It opened into a old clothing store that looked as if it had just shut down for the night. The fluorescent lights hummed in the roof, filling the empty store with noise. I was stunned, I thought that maybe someone had reconstructed the store behind the wall somehow and had just added the door. It didn’t make sense but it was a convincing lie. So I went in, it was another stupid decision but I wasn’t even thinking anymore.
I wandered around the store, simply staring at the impossible catalogue of mannequins and clothing. The mannequins were strange. There weren’t many of them, only four in total dotted about the store; but they weren’t on pedestals showing off clothing. Instead they were posed and dressed as if they were employees. Stocking shelves, working behind the desk, wandering about the store waiting to be asked a question..
I eventually wandered into the back dressing rooms. The four identical rooms were full of boxes of clothes. It was nothing so I turned to leave, but that was when the lights went out and I lost all of the little confidence I had. It was pitch black in the store. It made sense. There were no windows to let light in. But that didn’t make it any better. The dark oppressively surrounded me on all sides, not even giving me outlines of where to go.
It was then that my fear finally overwhelmed my shock and realized what situation I was in. I turned to run back in the direction I thought I had come from when I immediately bumped into an object. It felt like one of the mannequins. Apparently it had been right behind me. That or I had gotten turned around in the dark. So, I stepped around it and continued walking in what I believed the direction of the door was. Then I bumped into another mannequin, barely a couple steps past the other.
It felt like it was posed rigid, with it’s hands stretching down either side of it’s plastic body. It also had a surprising solidness to it, as if it was nailed to the floor. I didn’t care for logic any more, I didn’t remember seeing two mannequins so close to each other, so I thought I must’ve gotten turned around. That was the only reason that made sense. I had gotten lost in the dark and wandered into an area with two more mannequins.
At this point, I decided to start feeling around for a wall, something that I could follow to the exit door. I didn’t find a wall when I stretched my arms around me. My hand hit a surface, plasticky smooth. I quickly felt in every direction around me and realized I was surrounded by mannequins. Silently and unmoving, circling around me. I screamed, I don’t mind admitting that. I barreled through what I thought was a gap in my lifeless captors and hit a horde of artificial bodies, falling into a heap amongst them.
I fumbled around the pile trying to get up, feeling the numerous smooth figures around me. As I tried to get up from the pile, I felt my head hit a mannequin above me, bending it’s torso as if to look down on me. I tried to move past the mannequin, crawling over the pile. I only felt the cage of plastic on every side. I tried to slip through the gaps in their limbs, but could only fit my arm at most. I pounded on the plastic trying to shatter it but it resisted my attempts.
It was then that I felt my ankle get grasped. Or, maybe it’s not accurate to say something grabbed me. It was like I slipped into a gap in the pile and my ankle was now clutched in a smooth featureless hand. I maneuvered my foot for a bit before realizing it was wedged completely. I was going to die in that pile, scared and alone in the dark. It was as I realized this, when I got a notification on my phone. I immediately went to grab it from my pocket, bumping into another mannequin’s hand next to my pocket.
The screen lit up and I saw it was a notification from some useless game I had installed on my phone and accidentally left the notifications on for. More importantly, the screen illuminated my situation. There were hundreds of mannequins surrounding me, all frozen crawling over each other to encompass me.
I pushed past them, making my way to the door. I had been in the middle of the storeroom so it wasn’t that far of a distance, but pushing past the horde of plastic took time. I made sure not to ever cover the flashlight of my phone. And like that, I was out. I practically fell out of the door and ran to the hotel lobby, collapsing into a heap and telling them about what had happened. The staff called the police but they concluded I was drunk or high and took me to the station for the night.
When I was let out the following morning and returned to the hotel to retrieve my things, I saw that the wall across the street no longer contained a door. The graffiti now outlined a row of shadows all standing next to each other. I quickly packed my bags and travelled back to my home city and I have not returned to that area since, and I doubt I ever will. I don’ think I’ll take photos of ghost buildings anymore, they’re ruined for me.