Derelicts project started in 1999 when some friends and I embarked on an adventure into some of the derelict factories in and around our university town of Stoke on Trent. I have always had a fascination with old buildings particular ones that show elements that humans once inhabited them. There is something sad and yet poetically beautiful about a place void of life but with those pieces that showed it was loved, whether that was a home or a factory.
The project doesn’t just centre around one building but several buildings across Stoke on Trent, looking back with a camera in hand, adventure on our minds; I never thought we would capture so many hauntingly beautiful photographs. I would wonder if this is what the world would look like if the human race just vanished, would any traces of us exist or would we become a forgotten memory beneath nature? Although the buildings were empty other than a few discarded pieces of furniture, or equipment showing what their past lives were, they felt full; full of memories. In one room near the top of one building a small desk sat at the far end, there on the wall was a collection of Jaffa stickers, evidence that someone had been there, eating oranges and carefully placing the stickers on the wall, leaving the mark.
I have decided to use these photographs to create a book documenting the project, as many of the dilapidated buildings have been torn down to make room for new vibrant housing estates.
The book will be available on Amazon and Blurb.co.uk in the Summer of 2023.
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