Commercialization of Urban Exploration
Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 11:58AM
Matt in photography, urban decay, urban exploration

It's not uncommon for me to run into other people while exploring.  Sometimes they are other explorers, sometimes scrappers, other times maybe the odd homeless person or two.  This particular instance at a church in Detroit was very different.

While exploring this church for the first time with a few friends, we heard the sounds of other people entering the site.  Imagine our surprise when we saw they were carrying cases upon cases of lighting gear.  It turns out, they were going to be doing a commercial advertising photoshoot.

I had mixed feelings about this.  It's certainly cool to see abandonements used for advertising, after all, their aesthetic is what draws so many of us to explore them.  What bothered me about this though was how this group was going about their business.  Large moving truck parked outside, front door ripped wide open.  Not much to be said about being discreet or respecting the location.  I fully expect the location to get re-sealed in pretty short order, making it inaccessible to other explorers.

Commercialization of Urban Exploration

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