Greetings, all. I'm Rie, a photographer based in Melbourne, Victoria. I recently had an urge to create a photoseries on abandoned sites, and before I knew it, within a few Google searches and a good three hours, I was neck-deep in urbex forums... bringing me here!
If I'm being honest, I tried to create an account on this forum a week ago, but I kept feeding over-complicated answers to the RCP question. I suppose sometimes the right answer is the most simple one... Anyway, I hope that in the near future, I'll get to find people to explore with, learn from the more experienced, and most importantly, just make friends and have a blast. But of course, I'll share a bit about myself first.
Here's what fascinates me about UE: the escapism; the liminal, near-surrealist photography; the puzzle solving; the f*****g rollercoaster of a journey. And not to mention, the intense debates you get to witness along the way... And frankly, I'm unsure if this happenstance is a result of my youthful heart, or just an inevitable episode of quarter-life crisis.
Yesterday was my first expedition. It didn't go as expected, but was riveting nevertheless. We hit up (or tried to hit up) three spots: Nylex drain, KFC abando, and car wreckers (unsure of the codename for this one).
Nylex Drain: Uh yeah, not much luck with this at all. Firstly, there were heaps of ongoing construction nearby and we had to walk for ages to get around it. When we got there, we couldn't find the entrance. Probably a newb mistake made here, idk. I had some reference pictures that are pretty dated, so I guessed that it might've been recently blocked by construction or something. Or maybe we're just not meticulous enough. This got my spirits down a bit, but we quickly headed off to our next stop.
KFC Abando: We found it with ease, but there was security guarding the main entrance at 5pm on a Friday. Unfortunate as I'd placed my highest hopes on this site. Even just looking in from the outside, it seems incredible. We stuck around for another hour to see if he'd perhaps end his shift, but to no avail. Does anyone know if security's around this joint 24/7? We suspect they're only there during peak traffic hours. I might return on a weekday for another attempt.
Car Wreckers: After a string of losses, we had dinner and begrudgingly headed to our last resort, which turned out to be the best decision we'd made all dang day. Burger was 9/10, abando was 100/10. A barbed wire fence lines the compound, but the main gate was wide open — and boy the relief I felt was untouchable. I won't go into too much detail, but there were so many rooms, such jaw-dropping views of passing trains, dirt and dust everywhere. There were rooms with mirrors that probably never saw the light of day, so I let the atheist enter first for extra precaution. Electricity still runs through the compound, which is what perplexes me further.
Oh and here are some polaroid images I took from the last site (I'm thinking of giving them a proper scan at Officeworks bc the quality from my phone scanner is KindaShit)
-
-
In sum, I'm not expecting anyone to show me around the sweet spots just yet. I'd like to explore around and learn the ropes through trial and error for a bit, maybe at some point I'll find a couple of my own. For now, I'd just love to detail my experiences to anyone who might appreciate it.
Living life just to escape it.