Ellis began a blog of the same name in 2012 and has since uploaded dozens of posts including photographs and background information on the sites


After years of photographing and telling the stories of some of New York's longest abandoned sites, a photographer has put his photographs, research, and experiences into a book.

For the last three years, photographer Will Ellis has traveled around the five boroughs of New York City 'obsessively exploring' the city's abandoned places and taking photographs along the way, according to his blog Abandoned NYC.

And now,the Brooklyn-based photographer and videographer has published his findings in a book, 'Abandoned NYC.'

'I made it a goal pretty quickly to do a book soon after starting the blog; it was always part of the plan,' Ellis told Untapped Cities.

Since he began the blog in 2012, Ellis has photographed dozens of abandoned places from castles and cemeteries to mental institutions and diners.

The book includes 200 eerie images of 'urban decay,' according to Amazon, and Ellis said he spent a lot of time doing research on the locations he photographed.

'It's one thing to write up an article for the internet, but having it in print meant there was a lot of pressure to get things right,' Ellis told Untapped.

He said the book has been in the works for the last two years and he is excited to 'finally get it into people's hands.'

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Hospital: Photographed are the remains of an abandoned historic hospital in Northern Brother Island that held many patients suffering from contagious diseases

Village: Letchworth Village (photographed) was founded in 1912 as a home for the city's developmentally disabled as a 'state institution for the epileptic and feeble-minded'

'Mole People:' The Freedom Tunnel (here) under Riverside Park once held a vast homeless encampment known as 'the mole people'

'The book definitely feels like the culmination of this whole project,' he said. '...though I do plan to keep the blog updated with new photo essays every month or so.'

Along with Abandoned NYC, Ellis has other projects featured on his website including 'Urban Artifacts' which includes photographs of artifacts he's found while exploring the abandoned sites.

In his project 'Brooklyn Wild,' Ellis photographs the natural landscapes and wilderness of his home borough.

Neglect: Photographed is a classroom of P.S. 186 in Harlem after decades of neglect

Ballroom: hotographed is the abandoned Harlem Renaissance Ballroom which was once a notable meeting place for the movement's movers and shakers in the 1920s

Homemade Submarine: Here, a homemade submarine lies half-submerged in the mud of Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn

'Batcave:' The Gowanus 'Batcave' was the home of a thriving squatter community in the early 2000s and is reportedly being renovated into artists' studios and exhibition space.

Sugar Refinery: Here are the remains of a sugar refinery in Williamsburg that operated in Brooklyn for nearly 150 years

Farm Colony: Photographed is the last standing room of the Staten Island Farm Colony which was constructed in the 19th century to house and rehabilitate the city's poor

Dead Horse Bay: Here, 100-year-old artifacts cover Brooklyn's Dead Horse Bay where New York's deceased carriage horses were processed into glue and fertilizer

Pigeons: Here, is an abandoned ward at Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens now inhabited by a population of pigeons

Resort: Here is the abandoned Grossinger's Catskills Resort which was once a favored upscale destination for Jewish New Yorkers