WHAT IS URBEX ?
Beauty is subjective. What is beautiful to you might be ugly to someone else. I would like to show you what I consider beautiful.
Urban exploring
Have you ever walked next to a tall fence and wondered what was behind it? Have you ever seen a derelict building and wondered how eerie it would be to walk its corridors? Or maybe you heard about an abandoned theme park and wondered how uncanny it would be to explore it all by yourself?
Let me introduce you to #URBEX, a sub-category of urban exploring. No tickets, no waiting in queues. Just you, your camera and the silent place. There are special types of photographers whose entire purpose is to go inside abandoned places and take pictures. They would like to be known as explorers. They are certainly trespassers or sometimes they call themselves “bando chasers”. What they have in common is the love and passion for uncovering the unknown and preserving history.
Even pirates have their code
If you belong to this community, you know the rules. “Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints”. The unwritten code of conduct is to leave the location just as you found it. Do not steal, vandalize, tag or leave behind any belongings. Oh! I almost forgot. There is one more law…
This one frustrates the hell out of everyone. We do not share locations.
When you looked at the pictures here, what did you immediately think to yourself? “Where is this” – wasn’t it? I am sorry to disappoint but you will not find the answer here. I hope it isn’t a deal breaker and you stick around because there is a reason for the existence of this rule. Explorers spend a lot of time researching locations. I mean, extended amounts of time. That fact can’t be underestimated. This could be days searching through the Internet, website upon website searching for clues. It could be hours on hours spent on satellite mode maps locating the right spot. I have been asked “where is this” pretty much every time I post a picture from a different location. Now think back about your experience in school. Remind yourself of the time spent working on homework just to let your friend copy it without any effort. How did that feel?
But really the main reason we don’t share locations is this: my experience of exploring taught me that the popular spots, the ones that everyone knows about, get trashed very quickly.
That special feeling
I can’t stand mass tourism. Standing in the queues, waiting, buying overpriced tickets, dealing with crowds. “Get out of my frame, I’m trying to take a picture!” – how many times did you screamed that to yourself? When I go exploring, I feel transformed. My eyelids close for a second. I open them again and all of the sudden I am thrown into this fictional post-apocalyptic world in which I get totally immersed in. I imagine what this place was before it got abandoned. How many people have been there? How many enjoyed it and had fun here? How many had that special connection to this place? Maybe something unique happened to someone over here or over there. I go and I look for clues. I have always been a fan of Mad Max movies. Films like Book of Eli or The Road had made a huge impression on me too. Walking in the abandoned building reminds of those titles. I imagine what it would be like if the world that we know of ceased to exist. No more rules, no recognisable society, nothing like we have now, no governments. Just pure survival. What would you do? What would be your instinct? Would you have what it takes to survive?
Chasing Bandos Podcast
Every urban explorer has that story. You can’t believe what happened to me when I went there… We all love stories. I f you would like to know more about crazy adventures of urbex explorers tune-in for Chasing Bandos Podcast. On the pod we talk about everything from crazy to sad to happy to funny urban exploring stories. We discuss rooftopping, the code, urbex community, unique places and we sometimes dwell into more serious topics. Chasing Bandos Podcast is a place where the explorers from around the world get their voices heard.
