Photographer Scott McCarten captures beauty in abandoned Adelaide spaces

Updated

An Adelaide photographer is capturing beauty in the city's decay, one abandoned building at a time.

Scott McCarten's interest in derelict spaces stems from an earlier hobby of urban exploration, or urbex as some in the community call it.

"It was something I was doing before I knew other people were doing it," Mr McCarten said.

"I thought I was the only lunatic with an interest in abandoned buildings, so I was going into places and just exploring — seeing things that were left behind and finding that sort of beauty in the decay of things and I really enjoyed it."

His hobby of exploring left behind spaces soon grew into a love of photography, and Mr McCarten now shares stories of his explorations with people via his blog, Autopsy of Adelaide.

When it's raw and rusty and falling apart and there're old signs and relics of the people who have been there before, I just find that very appealing and I am finding that other people do too. Scott McCarten, photographer

Mr McCarten only started taking photos three years ago and has been blogging his findings since October.

"I didn't think to take a camera and I regret not taking a camera to some of the places that I found in the early days," Mr McCarten said.

"And then I found that there was a name for it and there was a community of other explorers and I just started taking my camera along and just really ramped up the photography side of things, which I like to focus on more than the urban exploration side of things."

Some of the spaces Mr McCarten has captured include an old telephone exchange, the now-disassembled children's theme park Fairyland, in Lobethal, and an Adelaide Hills home still intact after being abandoned more than 30 years ago.

But his personal favourite was the Darling Building in Franklin Street.

"Just because I had wanted to get into that building for a long, long time, basically I had deemed it my 'white whale'," Mr McCarten said.

"It was only after the building had sold to the current owners, who have developed the building, that they were really receptive to what I wanted to do and they gave me unprecedented access to the space.

"It was untouched. It was just as it was when it closed its doors 20 years ago, so in that regard it was really special."

The Darling Building was built as office space in 1916 by merchants John Darling and Son.

People feel 'connected' to historic images

Mr McCarten said a lot of people felt connected to the images he shared, which is what prompted him to make his work more accessible.

"I find that when you go into a space that is in that state, that there's a beauty there, particularly the historic places, there is more of a raw connection with the history," he said.

"You get a heritage building and somebody does it up and they repurpose it and that's lovely that its getting used, but it's a very clinical type of connection with the history.

"Whereas when it's raw and rusty and falling apart and there're old signs and relics of the people who have been there before, I just find that very appealing and I am finding that other people do too.

"It connects people with memory, I get a lot of people commenting ... that they used to go to that building, they used to have an appointment there, they used to see a dentist there, or they may have worked there or people who have lived in that building.

"It's connecting people with that, so I'm finding that people can connect with the work for that reason and I think it's just important to show what's under our feet and the things that have been lost."

The majority of Mr McCarten's work is from abandoned spaces in Adelaide, but he said he was starting to also explore regional areas in the state.

Mr McCarten said it can take a bit of research and leg work to find new places to explore, but sometimes inspiration is closer than people may realise.

"Most of the time it's right under your feet," he said.

"A lot of people say that Adelaide is boring, but there is a lot that you can get out there and find and do, and that's really where it started [for me]."

Topics: photography, arts-and-entertainment, visual-art, history, community-and-society, adelaide-5000, sa, australia

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