My first initial idea was to look at the abandoned buildings built around when communism was a thing in Bulgaria. I was going on a 2 week trip was ambitious of me to think that i can get a lot done but still i manage to get some tests. 

The idea was for me to show these amazing architectures and how they interacted with the environment and vise verse. They some of them have graffiti on them which shows how some people felt about them.

Just some of the tests I did

The inspiration in the framing came from a project called Entrance Project which i talk about more in my Inspiration Post. 

I even wanted to experiment with different formats so I took some polaroids as well. They weren't as successful as i hoped they would be but it was worth the try.

The biggest reason this idea didn’t work is because i didn’t have enough time. This needs to be documented carefully and over a period of time not just 2 weeks. So while i may not do it now it will be something i'll definitely do in the future.

It was to shoot abandoned things around the uk.

It was firstly buildings 

If i chose to do just the building it would not have been original or interesting at all. The i tried to focus on something more specific and thought of the red telephone boxes. 

I managed to find a red phone box grave yard where they are renovated and put out again which i thought could make a great series. 

Then I moved on to the Idea from the Entrance project but to shoot shop fronts from the London. I know there is some where i live close by so i did some tests

But it still doesn’t feel original at all. It's also boring because it's the same thing over and over again.

After looking at some photos that i took i realise that there were 3 buildings right next to each other that i couldn’t fit in a single frame. So i made them as a collage

I started to play with the idea of how the  photos should merge and at first i though that i should align the pavement and that’s it. But i decided to try and perfectly match the buildings and thats the idea stuck with and it was settled from then. Now i need test shots to compose

In this one I will talk about which ones fit the message 

I will try to group them and talk about the strength and weakness in them

Although the first one is my favourite technically because its 4 images and also the graffiti relate perfect to the message them i am trying to tell of how abandoned things still have a human presence in them and there is a relationship shown of how people continue to interact with them trough their interpretations of art

Second one i like because the street is downhill and it is visually appealing but it didn't work on print. It was too dark. Other than that the benches and bikes still provide the feeling of a potential human presence .

These were shot around sunset past 3 pm. They are the ones that grabbed the most attention when i was showing them for tutorials and in the final day before spring break. The sun really makes them all pop. The colors on paper look amazing. On some of the colleges i have really tried to eliminate the joining of the images to amplify the illusion.

People or no people???

These are the ones that i have so far with people.

The first one is the strongest one. Just the right amount in my opinion there is an odd person in the corner and you can still see the back and how abandoned everything is. 

The narrative is focused on their relationship with abandoned buildings and there is still something there but that question will be answered later on after i have everything shot.

Sone of the feedback that i got was to try and eliminate the people and try just one person. So i took where it was very few people and they just look too random where as the first one there is a direction and rhythm.

I thought I needed more sunlight . That changed after the last collage. I need patchy sunlight and shade. Thats seems to work the best.

I wanted to try something more ambitious that i have always wanted to try. I found the perfect as i was just about to walk back from where i came from i saw this big building that looked like it hadn't been touched in a while. It was ambitious but the light and composition seemed to perfect to walk past so i gave it a shoot.

It couldn’t have turned out any better. I need at least 2 3 more so i can decide which one to shoot but i dont think any cant beat this one. the location and the fact that it was 2 story is just too perfect. I felt comfortable shooting this handheld since i have done a lot of hyperlapse work so that meticulous "shoot and move shoot and move" flow was something i was comfortable with.

The only flaw that this can have is when its on print and the dark is too dark. I dont think that considering the size of the prints it would matter too much as long as detail is still retained.

There is also not a single square in the first level that hasn't been graffitied.

Continuing on thins i made a couple more 2 story buildings to explore this idea. These i was about to scrap completely but i wanted to go over them a second time to see if i can correct the perspective and make it more seamless and cohesive. I used the pre mask tool a lot on these to fix the windows and bricks.

This is the second edit and the one i sent to the printshop

Comparison of the 2 edits

Even though i stated at the beginning that i will not make a book because of the format of the images i wanted to give it a try anyway for research purposes. The book wasn't appropriate because of the sizes. The book would have had to been big to se the details in the graffiti and it just wouldn’t have been as impactful as a A2 print. 

For example the long 2 story building is the reason I knew that the book wont do the project justice. Because it's so long in a A4 the image gets lost. Some work like the 2 story next to it. It's more squared so it fits. Maybe i could have explored the idea more but then i would have had to take way more photos to make a book and it would have been too repetitive and boring. I wanted to choose fewer but the ones that still got the point across about how the people leave their marks on abandoned buildings.

Analysis ​​​​​​​

Im glad I kept my mind opened to new ideas. That i got from my last project and i'm glad i was able to implement it here. 

I recognised that my projects were too similar to my inspirations and i t would have just been wrong to it. 

I also put my spin on it to make it original.

even when the idea was set in stone i still experimented with it and thats how the 2 story buildings came about. 

This is something that isn’t even on the behance or i have spoke about in tutorials but my file organisation.I have no idea how i let that happen because usually i keep everything neat. I have never had such a bad catalogue. Trying to find all the files to edit them and stitch them in over 1000 pictures just for this project was just ridiculous. I cannot imagine when i would have realised that if it wasn't for the submission.

Explore more ideas of mediums that the photos could have been displayed on like book , website, special prints and etc. Even if i know it wont work i should still try it just to be sure because I book could have potentially worked if i had explored the idea more.

Organise my files

Try and save more money for prints