Driving through decay

Due to the absence of posts in the past few months, some of you (the HIAT readers) asked me if I engaged into the ironic deed of abandoning the blog. Well, not that I ran out of places and thing to write about, but I got tired of posting the photos that are already out there, on the internet. Because of that, I struggled a bit and finally got myself a nice DSLR to go out and capture them myself, maybe even some of those that have not been captured before. This is one of the first sets I made with the new camera. I'm still learning the art of using a good camera, as I mainly worked with phone or cheap cameras until now, so don't expect to be amazed by the level of professionalism just yet.
This was a test run which I did from my car. It was 30 minutes to sunset and the area is full of dogs, scrap metal thieves and other dangers so I didn't go inside any of these structures. If any of my old readers are still among my present readers, you will probably recognize this area, which was posted twice before when I visited it with Alex. If not, here they are:

Communist industrial ruins

The industrial leftovers of communism in Romania

Shipwrecks of the world

Haven't posted shipwrecks until now, for the main reason that people are pretty aware of their existence. They always fascinated me though, what's better than a huge steel machinery, left to rust and disintegrate at the hands of nature? 
Also fascinating is the fact that many shipwrecks even redefined history, cultures and media (the Titanic for example).
Being that I live in a port city, which once based it's industry on the Danube, growing up I've seen a lot of shipwrecks, some of which were in a state of decay, similar to some of the photos in this post. They were not left there due to an accident, like a rock or iceberg collision, but simply because they became "useless" once the industry went downhill, and they were just left there to rust. Most of them were sold at some point, as scrap metal, and there aren't many left these days.

The textures of decay

These textures are some of my favorites, gathered from Michael Chase's work. His posts are one of the reasons that make me visit Tumblr almost daily.

Michael Chase is a photographer that tries to expose the beauty behind decay, especially decayed surfaces. He says on his blog that:

The idea of impermanence is a central theme in my work. I use color, texture, and composition to highlight the subject of decay. The main objective of my work is to draw attention to the passing of time and immediacy of separation. I also want to show the viewer that beauty can be found in unlikely places.

Indeed, his work is awesome and I think he is doing exactly what he's trying to do, showing that beauty exists in unlikely places.

So here are some of my favorites. He has a lot of metal textures and wall textures, which I approve of. Visit his blog for more, way more.

Assan's Mill in 2012

In the previous post, I presented Assan's Mill to you. The photos from that post, taken by Reptilianul were taken in 2009. The photos in this post are made in june 2012, right after the latest fire. As I mentioned in the previous post, Assan's Mill is a frequent destination for urban explorers, graffiti artists, hobos ... and arsonists. 
The mill was set on fire (by nature or people?) several times before, and the latest fire lasted for 28 hours before firemen could put it out, on june 7th, 2012. The last fire before that was on the night of may 13th 2008 and required the work of 80 firemen. The good thing is that there were never any victims due to these fires.

Assan's Mill

This mill is pretty popular and a frequent destination for local explorers, graffiti artists, hobos, and arsonists. It was the first steam mill in Romania, built in 1853 by two merchants, Gheorghe Assan and Ioan Martinovici. Even though it's considered a historical monument and it has a heritage value for the industrial heritage, the mill is going through an advanced state of decay, which is made even worse by the homeless scavengers that sell every piece of metal they can find here. The property is 5 hectares (12.3 acres) wide.

Kharkov Armoured Repair Factory

This is the somewhat abandoned Krarkov tank repair plant, that used to repair around 60 units and 55 engines monthly, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Krarkov (or Khrarkiv) in Ukraine, hosted one of the best tank units factories in the 1930's. This plant was designed for repairs, and now it's not very active anymore, but still going, although it looks like it's perfectly abandoned. Now it just looks like a very neat scrap yard, full of abandoned tanks and military equipment. The fact that the plant doesn't have any more work to do, means the tanks are not being used, therefore no wars are active, which is a good thing. That doesn't make it less sad that these tanks are left there abandoned. Wasted money.

Abandoned plant in Russia

This abandoned factory in Russia, makes a perfect scenery for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. based movies or games. The location is very eerie, and if you played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or if you watched the movie Stalker 1979 you will see why this place fits like a shoe.

Also, the explorer that took these photos had quite an adventure. He had to run away from guard dogs and climb the buildings to get away, but he successfully managed to capture the best out of this place. I recommend visiting his blog, at the end of this post.

The Nikulinskaya Mine

The Nikulinskaya mine is the largest mine in the Moscow mine field. It was abandoned in the early 2000's and today it's just another abandoned mine. The entrance to the mine is flooded so nobody can get in. Any other parts of the site, like the office buildings for example, have been scavenged, and even things that had a minor value were stolen. Also, grass has now started to grow indoor.

Huge machine abandoned in Russia

According to the author of the photographs, this is the Morozov coal mine, but I wasn't able to find more about it, maybe the translation is not good. Mining here dates from 1962 but recently stopped due to power outages and power companies failing to pay debts. All the excavated earth was carried through pipelines, and gradually created this huge quarry.
The excavator in the first picture is one of the hugest things you ever seen. Sadly, now, it's just another pile of rusted metal, but a glorious pile of rusted metal because of it's impressive size. It looks like a monster crane, compared to the other machines abandoned in the same area. It could make someone rich just by selling it as scrap metal (don't get any ideas government people).

Demolished industry

These are some factories on Progresului St. in Bucharest. They are almost entirely demolished, but still attract several explorers. This particular explore didn't involve me sadly, but I need to expose this location further, to my readers.

I'll try and convince the author to take me to this place one day. Maybe I can capture even more of this place.

Source: Explorer reporting in!

The rusty Maunsell Forts

I heard of these forts about 2 years ago, but until recently, I couldn't remember how they were called.

I consider them fascinating mostly because they are abandoned, but almost unreachable. The kind of explore I will probably never have the opportunity to do. The internet has plenty of pics and info on the forts, and almost every urbex addict knows of their existence by now, but that didn't stop me from showing them to you once more.

The Maunsell Forts were small fortified towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities. One became the Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium called Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Redsand.

Shime coal mine

Along with Prypiat, this location, meaning this tower in particular, is one of the most famous abandoned places on the internet. 

While Prypiat is fascinating the internet through the fact that it's a medium sized city, it's soviet and it's abandoned, Shime coal mine got it's fame through it's unique structure. It's one of those famous internet memes everyone know about. The internet made it a meme because they say it's the perfect zombie fortress, and I don't challenge that idea. It looks pretty zombie safe.

An arctic ghost town, Pyramiden

Pyramiden is an abandoned Russian settlement and coal mining community on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. Sweden founded if in 1919 and sold it to the Soviet Union in 1927. It's name comes from the pyramid-shaped mountains near the town. The town once had 1.000 residents, but in 1998 it was abandoned by Arktikugol Trust, the Russian state company who owned it, meaning that another ghost town was born. The town was abandoned in a hurry and things remain largely as they were in 1998. The residents were given just hours to pack their bags and leave.

Post-industrial relics

This post has been sitting in the drafts section since June 2011. I wonder why I forgot about it. Well, that's not important now, the photos are nice and you will surely enjoy them.

The story of Hashima Island

Hashima is a small rocky island, situated near the coast of Nagasaki in Japan. Although tiny in size, the island is not unimportant, being Japan's main coal supplier for almost a century. Located above a huge coal deposit, which extends to the ocean, Hashima itself was an excellent opportunity to make a fortune, this opportunity couldn't be missed.

Centralia, Pennsylvania

In the past, Centralia could be described as a friendly town with 3,000 residents, who could enjoy common facilities: shops, churches, hotels and bars. As with other U.S. cities, Centralia was what could be called a "boomtown". The first inhabitants settled here in 1866, and the settlement rapidly flourished, after profits were incoming from mining going on in the hill area. In the particular case of this city, what helped it rise, also made it collapse.

Motorless city of Detroit

Some abandoned areas are part of some highly populated cities. How can a metropolis have an empty "heart"? Probably one of the most striking examples is the city of Detroit, which houses a totally abandoned neighborhood and fallen industry.

Humberstone and Santa Laura, Chile

All over the world you can find a lot of modern places, with a sad story, which resulted in their abandonment. We know them as ghost towns. Invariably, each one of them hides an interesting story. Some, like the chinese city of Beichuan, have been the victims of natural disasters. Others, such as San Zhi in Taiwan have been abandoned by some rather esoteric reasons. The stillness that surrounds these former human settlements seems almost tangible. In contrast with the deafening silence that dominates these lands, the omnipresent and chaotic noise that characterizes the big metropolises becomes even harder to imagine.

Now, let's talk about Humberstone and Santa Laura, in Northern part of Chile.

Changes are upon us!

We finally have a domain! Happy happy joy joy!

Seeing the number of visits that keep growing and growing, I decided to finally take the next step and get a domain. 

Unfortunately "hiat" seems to be a widely used term and all relevant domains are already used so I didn't have many name options to choose from, and still keep the reference to Hiat.

So, we are now a .org site, that will continuously inform people about the places that have been forgotten. A sort of derelict Wikipedia, hehe.

Please rate the posts again with +1's and Reactions, as they were deleted when the blog switched to the domain.

Also, many other changes are being planned.

Changes would include:

- Host changing

- Site redesign

- More informative articles

- Maybe a forum

- Photo submission

- Photo contests with prizes!

(Please suggest more or comment on these below.)

Don't forget to add the new link to your bookmarks!

Wonders of decay