I think it’s all in the mind, but I’m not sure that makes it any less real.īoroughs of the Dead: “Every city has its ghosts.” If you don’t believe in literal hauntings (or even if you do), what do you think about the metaphorical relationship between history, and ghosts, and what role do you think memory, and by extension photography, play in that, if any? I looked back at my time there and was almost convinced that I’d felt something was off about it, but I had to stop myself because the fact is I didn’t “feel” anything at the time. That information completely changed my perception of the space. If we have preconceived notions of a place or knowledge of some sordid aspect of its history, we’ll definitely be more attuned to “vibes” or “presences.” The last location I photographed (some underground ruins on Staten Island) I later found out was the site of a brutal murder in 1976. Will Ellis: I think it all comes down to our perception. that a place can have a palpable residual energy attached to it? Do you have any opinions on the connections between the physicality of a building and any attendant “place memory” that may be attached to it? Do you even believe in such things, e.g. I personally also feel it’s one of the city’s most “haunted” boroughs, in the sense that there is a very strong, strange energy to many parts of the island. Individually, these structures may not be that important in the grand scheme of things, but they represent important changes that have taken place in this city and elsewhere–the age of institutions, the decline of the working waterfront, etc.īoroughs of the Dead: You’ve said that Staten Island is a great place to find ruins, which I find really interesting. Will Ellis: It’s local history–most of these places aren’t going to end up in the history books, eventually they’ll be forgotten. We chatted recently about all things abandoned, forgotten, and eldritch in the city of New York.īoroughs of the Dead: You’ve already documented elsewhere the origins of your interest in photographing abandoned spaces, noting, “At first I was just drawn to the visuals, but as it went on, I started digging through the archives of the New York Times and figuring out the history of these places and how they fit into the broader history of New York City.” What is it that draws you to this history? Why do you think it is important to remember these forgotten spaces? Will Ellis, founder of the blog Abandoned NYC and author of the book by the same name, was one such as these. Sometimes at Boroughs of the Dead, we happen upon fellow New Yorkers whose interests are so in-tune with our own, we just have to get to know them.
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