Surface Below

I came across Ross McDermott's awesome photography on his website surfacebelow.com after searching for information on Gunkanjima, an abandoned factory island off the coast of Japan that boasts the world's highest recorded population density. Now, I've always been fascinated with abandoned buildings and forgotten places, from Atlantis and Tical to our modern day industrial wastelands. But to think that this island, now the perfect embodiment of a ghost town, was once bustling with activity and movement (and as recently as fifty years ago was the most densely populated place on Earth) is downright eerie.

There's this quote by photographer Charles Traub that I've always felt "captures" the essence of what photography is all about. He says, "As structures are built, the photographer contrives new imagery that documents the encroachment of civilization." In this case, McDermott's photographs beautifully capture a moment post-encroachment, when all that remains of this island called Gunkajima is the structures left behind.

[image courtesy of http://elbauldejosete.wordpress.com/]