Exploring Ontario Rural Ruins

Once Upon a Time…

In 2005 I bought my first digital camera and began using it to take urban exploration photos of abandoned, derelict or just very old places. Most of my photos are farm houses taken in rural Ontario areas. While I was living in Toronto I would take the street car along whatever street I picked and photograph the old, tall buildings. Some of those places are probably gone now. That is the sad part of being an urban explorer, knowing the places I’m admiring may be gone the next time I visit them.

I’ve been living in rural areas longer than urban places so it wasn’t too surprising when I began using my camera to photograph old farm houses, rural exploration. I’ve been asked to pinpoint what it is I like about the old ruins and I can’t come up with a single, simple answer. It’s something about history and heritage, something about the mystery of their past. Something about watching how they weather, how they show their age and how much of the original workmanship with wood, glass, iron can survive the elements and the plants steadily taking over. My favourite abandoned places are those which are obviously not lived in, they are too far gone to be liveable I think they are lonely looking and that has some appeal to me as well.

I like taking the photographs, to document that the house existed and even to show how it has stood up to the neglect of years. There should be a feeling of pride in them, if you can imagine an inanimate object having feelings surely a house (a place that was once a home) would have them. Maybe what I’m doing is amateur photojournalism, but I don’t so much feel that way about it.

I don’t look into the history of the houses I photograph. If I were truly documenting them I would have the documentation, records of when I was there and what had changed since my last visit. I’d look up the history, the people who owned it and find out how or why it was abandoned. I don’t do this, however.

The odd time someone stops me while taking photos and asks me what I’m doing. Some of them are suspicious but most are just curious. My standard answer is that I love the old buildings and like to take pictures of them. People are satisfied with that answer. Often they tell me whatever they happen to know about the place and the people who once lived there. I’ve been invited to come back and pick apples on an abandoned apple farm. I’ve had an old man spend almost an hour telling me the history of an abandoned church.

A lot of people like the old ruins but they don’t stop to take photographs. It’s a shame because they don’t last forever. Three of my favourite places are gone. It always comes as an unpleasant surprise. No one puts up a notice that they are going to demolish the derelict houses and the places themselves can hardly give you a timeline for when they will finally give up the ghost and just collapse. I have also missed ever getting a photograph of a few places because I didn’t stop to get the photograph at the time. I thought I could just come back later… when it was better lit, when it wasn’t so wet out, when the grass might not be quite so long and tangled, when I had the energy to get out and walk around… etc. But, there is no next time when time has passed you by.

You may look at photos of old houses like these and expect to see something creepy, ghostly and haunted. I can say I have never felt that way. Not while taking the photos or looking at them later. I have had experience with attacking birds, a few beehives, animal holes and a toad I still hope I did not actually step on in the long grass on a very wet day. I may disappoint the ghost hunters and other paranormal seekers, but I have never found anything paranormal or had a creepy feeling at any location I have visited (and I’ve been to a lot).