derelict structures in stockport

On Saturday I went for a bike ride out to Stockport along the Mersey - and then back. I also made the foolish decision to take my shirt off - and consequently got burned to smithereens.

On the way back I decided to stop and photograph a couple of the derelict structures I'd seen. What I assume was some kind of factory or industrial unit in the photos above and below.

It actually wasn't quite as drowned in foliage as I've made it look but I like that contrast of the natural and the constructed. Especially when the constructed is so decrepit.

Then there was the bridge in the remainder of the photos. I sent a different photo to each of a few friends on a whim.

Again there's a perhaps slightly exaggerated sense of how much foliage there actually was. Part of the influence on me doing this is undoubtedly the films of Andrei Tarkovsky - and especially Stalker.

I'd even say there's an objective similarity in that both the landscapes Tarkovsky filmed Stalker in and the location of these photos are neglected former industrial sites. Although not only were Tarkovsky's sites in use a lot closer to the time of filming - but I believe were also heavier industry than these are likely to have been.

I do rather like the way that the lack of contextual information, the bright light (the sun was coming almost directly into the lens), and sometimes the bit of the structure I choose to frame can make it, or the location, or both look more exotic than they are.

The image right at the bottom might be a temple somewhere. I think it looks that way partly because the obvious archway is out of shot. But also because it's less easy to judge scale than it is the photos immediately above and below this text.

These last three photos were easy to take compared to the first two of this same structure. For those I had to climb through brambles to find a position to take them from. Even the my footing wasn't wholly secure and there was a lot of tall growth very close to where I was.