Architectural Afterlife

My name is Johnny Joo (pronounced 'yo'.) I am a 25-year-old photographer from Ohio. At the age of 16, I started to explore various areas around where I lived and quickly grew to love what I would find on explorations, whether it was through nature or abandoned structures. I shortly after began to capture the world around me, the things I see and how I see them. I wanted to share these beautiful places with people as well as I can, and through a lens was how I could shape these visions. Through all that I have loved to photograph, around the age of 16 I became intrigued with urban exploration upon the discovery of an abandoned farm house in the city of Kirtland, OH. My mother, step-father and myself were on our way to my sisters house when I had spotted it and asked if we could pull into the drive way to check it out. The way the roof was caved in, covered in bright moss attracted my attention. It was beautiful. We pulled into the drive and walked from our car up to the entrance of this falling structure. I was fascinated by the way moss and ivy could wrap itself up a man-built machine or around the outside of a building, crawling in through its windows, traveling up an intricate Victorian stairwell as it fell into a corridor. I loved the way a torn apart hallway would lead you to an open room where the shattered remains of a window lie in pieces on the ground while the outside light poured into a room of colorful, peeling walls lighting up the silence surrounding you. It opened my eyes to a whole normally unseen part of life and the world around me. This is something that will not be here forever, but was alive at one point and is now just a memory which could soon become yet another memory lingering upon the soil or street corner where it once stood. I thought to myself 'this is what I need to document and share with the world.' It captured me in such an incredible way, and I now attempt to capture it just as well as it has me.

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Cleveland's Falling Industry

December 23, 1814 marks the date that Cleveland would receive its charter as a village under the name of Cleaveland, named after U.S. General Moses Cleaveland.

By 1820, the village population had grown to 606 people, while Cuyahoga county in its entirety held 6,328.

Some years later, on January 6, 1831 The Cleveland Advertiser changed the name of the village, dropping the first “a” in order…

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Fire In Garrettsville

So, a little unexpected turn for the day as most of the historical strip of Garrettsville, OH has turned to ash. Send good, positive thoughts to those who lost shops, and hope that everyone came out okay and uninjured.

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60 FREE Lightroom Presets As you may know, if you follow the Facebook page, I have recently been offering 60 FREE Lightroom presets.

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Sidaway Bridge, Hough Riots and the Cleveland Torso Murders

Sidaway Bridge, Hough Riots and the Cleveland Torso Murders

The Sidaway Bridge is a historic footbridge in Cleveland, Ohio.

The original purpose of this bridge was to bring two neighborhoods together, rather than being divided. It was an effort made to stop feuding between separate Polish and Hungarian neighborhoods in Cleveland. It was believed that this would contribute to their mutual commercial and general welfare. The original bridge was built in…

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Abandoned Abbeys - St. Joseph Church

Abandoned Abbeys – St. Joseph Church

As we stood static beneath the crumbling mural of the apse, a cold wind fluttered in through the openings surrounding us. Where once stained glass was held in place now remain bare frames circling the upper walls, pouring chilled air into the desolate chapel, and down towards the altar like waterfalls into a small oasis. The fluttering of birds fills the space high above the altar, and even…

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Fable of a Forgotten Foundation

Fable of a Forgotten Foundation

A mother is making breakfast as the morning sunrise beams over the horizon, crossing a vast and flourishing country field to peak through the kitchen window. A warm, golden haze paints the room, as the smell of bacon and maple syrup coats the fresh wood grain cabinets and vinyl-tiled floor on the inside. Outside, the sun casts heavy shadows among the barns front, and the land lays blanketed in…

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Hamilton's Market

A lot of us buy into the “new thing”, to become hip or trendy, to create a sense of happiness in having the shiny, brand new products that are available to us. Some people create a false sense of happiness for themselves by flaunting what they have at the time, and most of us are no exception to this. But what happens when that area of time has been phased out, along with all of its treasures?…

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A Loved One Lost and Missed

A Loved One Lost and Missed

Every now and then, here and there I will post something unrelated to exploration, if I feel that I just want to share it, or get it off my chest. And I just feel this is one of those moments. I want to share the life of this dog, who became a family member to us. She existed. She was here once, and now she’s gone. She should be mentioned. I’m just missing her. Feelings are funny.

Around…

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Falling From the Sky

Falling From the Sky

2012 Geminids meteor

A photo from the 2012 Geminid meteor shower. As I stepped from my door, and down the porch to set my tripod down, I saw the brightest trail of light I have ever seen falling from the sky, towards the Earth. Glowing bright blue, hurdling towards our planet; something more brilliant than could be described through words or photo. I wish there were a way for me to communicate…

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Ghosts of the School Yard

Ghosts of the School Yard

I sat scrunched up in the mouth of a tall, skinny window where its glass panes had been broken away, with my back and feet against each side of its frame. My feet kicked away bits of the cracking paint from its edges as I sat with a vast world of silence on either side of me; each one its own. The streets outside; littered with fluttering trash, gapped roads, and cracked sidewalks lined with…

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The Liberty/Paramount Theatre - The Final Curtain

The Liberty/Paramount Theatre – The Final Curtain

This Adamesque architectural masterpiece was built during the year of 1917, and finally opened its doors as The Liberty Theatre in 1918; a monumental, ornately brilliant structure designed by Detroit architect C. Howard Crane along with associate architects Stanley & Scheibel, looking out over the streets of Central Youngstown. Its exterior; lined with white glazed Terra Cotta ornamentation,…

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Hurricane Sandy sweeping through blowing up transformers.

Hurricane Sandy sweeping through blowing up transformers.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This is a photo I shot a few hours ago of a transformer blowing up in the distance while I was exposing for a photo of a tree on someones house. A giant blue radiation of electricity pulses through the clouds in the sky lighting up the night.

The sky was pulsing with color all over the place.

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Recent Updates (or lack of) Apologies for the lack of recent updates as I am currently working on researching and writing up sections for a few places which I will be posting soon. I have been writing them as I have had spare moments of time. I should be able to get one posted tomorrow though!

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Rolling Acres Mall - Akron, OH

Rolling Acres Mall – Akron, OH

Rolling Acres Mall. A once beautiful, nationally recognized mall for its design; opened in 1975 which would later come to a sharp decline in 2007 and close indefinitely in 2008.

What once stood as a magnificent piece of architecture, including the center of the structure known as The Court of the Twelve Trees has now been thrown to ruins throughout the past 4 years.

This mall housed stores…

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Beautiful Decay: Introduction

Once in a while, a man-made structure is left to rest; becoming just another one of natures many manikins to stylize, and destroy however it pleases. The structures become a victim, like a marionette to natures decay. The earth and its elements blend together in the destruction and beautifying of these areas left to rot. A scorched barn, flooded apartments, a factory filled with decay; walls…

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One of the Strangest Abandoned Places I Have Visited

One of the Strangest Abandoned Places I Have Visited

Probably one of the strangest places I have been.

abandoned bowling alley with everything left behind

This bowling alley sits vacant, nearly in the middle of nowhere. Climbing through a small entrance in back, I entered into what looked to be a fully functional bowling alley, now abandoned for years

abandoned bowling alley seats

I came to find that I was creating slight foot prints in…

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A Colorful Home Now Just A Spirit

A Colorful Home Now Just A Spirit

It’s very sad to say that this home has recently been demolished.

I found this house during a summer evening and was immediately attracted to the way the sun lit every single room. Each room was a different color, all bright, all happy.

Peering up the stairs, I could see that the sun was consuming the bright walls which lie in the rooms ahead. It was almost blinding, the way the outside…

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