I'd like to photograph old neglected areas, industrial ruin, gritty towns, etc. instead of the beauty spots. Any suggestions? I'd also like to photograph up and running industry, steel especially, but I image without contacts or language that would be out of the question. I would probably arouse suspicion. Thanks.
Pardon me. I meant to ask, any suggestions of areas where I can find this. I see where Selesia is a good start. And Lodz has some areas that remain. North, South, East, West? Best would be towns that have a lot of old stuff to wander around in.
If you search for Urban Exploration you should find quite a large number of galleries of already-photographed stuff to give you some ideas. Every major city in Poland will have a decaying industrial area of some kind, and the UrBex and Geocache guys (google them) regularly highlight these "beauty spots" for eachother.
If you're in Warsaw, let me know and I'll show you some places. I've a fondness for it too.
Try Pstrąże. Once it was a town of 30,000 people. Now it is completely abandoned. Kozubnik was one of Poland's top holiday resorts in the 1970s but since going bankrupt in 1996 it has been looted of everything of any value. Have a look at then and now photos
Wałbrzych area would do, southwestern Poland, near Wroclaw. Gritty town + closed mines + much of decaying but very good architecture + mountains around.
PS. Be aware that there are some places there where it is better to hide your camera.
Thanks for the help. Yes, it seems that this theme is already heavily covered. Primarily the astounding collection put together by the Beckers, and then the subsequent explosion that digital cameras brought about. It seems that every other person these days is making remarkable photographs, and my forty years in the field adds up to diddly. And I don't mean Bo. So I guess I'll just look for the funky side of town and see what calls out to me.
I have a kind of ongoing personal project to document the remaining textile history of this region; even though it was massive at one time, there are surprisingly few good photos online of many of the mills which remain. Photos of run-down buildings can also have a character which a building in good condition doesn't have.
I worked in two mills myself, before I retrained in something completely different, but both mills were demolished before I could take photos of them; furthermore, it seems that no photos exist online either.
Fortunately, I took a few photos inside one of them before it closed, but that was in the days before digital cameras, and I don't have a scanner :( But I really ought to get them scanned now, because they're getting a bit old and worn now (a few got damaged, but nothing that GIMP can't sort, I'm sure).
