Japan has some awesome abandoned buildings, here are the film shots
Do you remember last month that I went out on a ‘Haikyo’ or decaying building walk? Well, I have finally got the film shots back (finally as in, I finally got around to scanning them). Here they are.
In my last post about Japanese haikyo I mentioned that I had taken some film shots. Well, here they are…finally.
All of these were taken with a Leica M6 using a 35mm F2 Summicron ASPH on Fuji SuperPresto film. I love the atmosphere of this film and it just adds to the spooky and somewhat lonely nature of these shots.
There is something really haunting about these places, how they were just left completely untouched. I have been to abandoned buildings in the UK and Europe, but none of them were left ‘as is’, they had been stripped and sold off.
But Japanese abandoned buildings seem to be left completely intact. It really is as if one day the owner just thought to themselves “sod this, I am off” and never went back. Everything is still there, even letters and paperwork on the front desk.
Some of the buildings were clearly abandoned in the late eighties during the midst of the bubble as they are in a very advanced state of repair. But not all of them are falling apart. In fact some of them are being snapped up by developers so that they can be ‘reborn’.
I actually found out that one of my favorite spots have actually gone now. But there are still plenty of places left all over Japan that are begging to have pictures taken of them. I am going to be going on another haikyo soon, and next time I will be taking a lot more film with me.
The Haikyo bug is really infectious, but it really is not something you should be doing on your own. I cannot stress safety enough. You really need to be aware of where you are walking and the state of the building you are in. As long as you have that covered you should be fine.
Have you been on an interesting haikyo? Do you know any good spots? Comment and tell us where you go and where we should be going. Lets get a nice list going.
Cheers
Japancamerahunter
I’ve been to about 130 haikyo (takes most of my week-ends), but my favorites are definitely hospitals and schools (when they’re not empty). Mines are often really interesting too, but cannot really compete with the ones in Europe or elsewhere. A question though, is the picture with the dolls was taken in the same hotel? (I went there, saw many pianos and all but not those dolls).
Hi, thanks for the comment.
The dolls was actually a different hotel, but I didn’t want to reveal my sources:)
Thanks
Bellamy
Bellamy,
Better late than never. No. 1 I love the quality of the images as if to pretend that they are silver gelatin prints. They have fabulous tones. I am brand new to this site. I am fascinated by the quality of JCH’ s , well everything from portfolios like yours, to the outrageously odd, vintage Leica stuff but really all cameras, and members like yourself who share great stuff in a very unselfish way. There was a great blog post about Rodinal, it’s available ROG? substitute. The reason I bring it up, with everything going digital, I had to buck the trend, shot o roll of HP-5 with my Nikon F3hp and I know nothing about what is still availlable, got a recommendation.
Slightly creepy and extremely fascinating sites. I wish I had some nearby.. Very nice shots, Bellamy.