Initially drawn into the world of abandoned photography, Matt became hooked on the fascinating back stories behind the locations he visited. Capturing and bringing these stories into peoples homes via his social channels has evolved into a seven year long project called ‘Forgotten Heritage’. Since he began he has photographed many diverse locations like abandoned farmsteads in the arctic circle, vast industrial remnants in northern Europe to crumbling villas and hospitals in Italy. The project has won several international photography awards to date and has been widely published.

Here is a mood board of Matt Emmett’s work. During his 3 year project he found himself trudging through debris, wading in water, spelunking in man-made caverns—all for the sake of creating images that celebrate the unique appeal of abandoned architecture.

The genre of Emmett’s work falls under documentary. He spent 3 years travelling around different countries recording the decaying, abandoned buildings as they have been left. His images inform people about the hidden corners of contemporary life that viewers weren’t aware of and haven’t come across.

This leads to why I chose to study Matt Emmett in relation to my project. Considering the themes ‘Observe, seek and challenge’ I think Emmett’s work comes underneath the theme of ‘Seek’ as he’s attempting to find these places to take photos of them and show to the world.

-For Emmett, traversing dangerous terrain is more than a matter of seeking thrills.

“These places that were once alive with sound and movement are now silent and still, but they are no less mesmerizing,” he says. “Immense and powerful beauty resides in forgotten places.”

Image analysis

I chose this image to analyse because I think it portrays the theme of ‘seek’ in many ways. The perspective in which the photo has been taken from implies Emmet is exploring the unknown, he is about to walk down the long tunnel path ahead seeking what is down there. This image is taken in natural lighting, the brightness of the image is coming from, what I’m guessing is, the sunlight seeping through the cracks of the broken ceiling. The image is saturated, yet decaying at the same time; green moss and plant life is growing over the rubble showing how nature is now taking over the area. This also proves this location has been abandoned as natural life is starting to grow and take over. This image is aesthetically pleasing to viewers, there is a dark vignette around the edges and the centre of the image (towards the end of the path) is very bright and amplified. Emmett has taken this photo carefully and has set up the composition of the image very precisely, edited or not, the midground of this image is also the brightest part of the image and this automatically creates a focal point in the image that’s going to catch a viewers eye. Raising questions such as, where is this? How did it end up like that? why has it been abandoned? Matt Emmett’s work has a mysterious feel to it as he seeks unknown locations . I am heavily inspired by Matt Emmett’s work, considering my chosen theme of the exam project, and I intend to create images of my own based around his work.