About The Author

Rob Bowen is a staff writer for Web Hosting Geeks and Top Web Hosting, a longtime freelance designer, and burgeoning videographer and filmmaker whose creative … More about Robert

The Beauty Of Urban Decay Photography

Quick Summary

The city is a fantastic source of beauty and inspiration, with all the glitz and glamour glistening beneath the city lights. But there is another side of the city altogether, one rife with its own kind of allure. Across the tracks, away from the dazzle of downtown, lies a darker imagination, this one looking to grunge-ridden, dilapidated architecture for inspiration. There is a beauty that pervades this kind of urban decay and captured wonderfully through a photographer’s well-trained eye. These industrial city scenes are wonderfully dark and offer a glimpse of the weathered face beneath the city facade.

Table of Contents
Membership counter

Members support Smashing

Wonderful, friendly people who keep this lil' site alive — and get smarter every day.

Are you smashing, too? →

The city is a fantastic source of beauty and inspiration, with all the glitz and glamor glistening beneath the city lights. But there is another side of the city altogether, one rife with its own kind of allure. Across the tracks, away from the dazzle of downtown, lies a darker imagination, this one looking to grunge-ridden, dilapidated architecture for inspiration.

There is a beauty that pervades this kind of urban decay and captured wonderfully through a photographer’s well-trained eye. These industrial city scenes are wonderfully dark and offer a glimpse of the weathered face beneath the city facade.

In this inspirational installment, we take a tour and show the charm of a more neglected and worn side of the city. We showcase the beauty of urban decay, a series of photos of this eroded elegance that photographers have captured brilliantly. These gorgeously grungy images have a haunting appeal, a stirring quality that radiates from within and that earned them a spot on this list.

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

35 Beautiful Examples Of Urban Decay Photography

phill.d “It never ceases to amaze me the different colors and effects you can achieve in a boring concrete R.C.P drain.”

Urban Decay Photography

Magnus Lindqvist “Your Worst Nightmare”. “This is a bit different from what I normally shoot. I had this shot in my head for a very long time but it wasn’t until last weekend I finally shot it. The only light source is a shop light behind the door. The place is very narrow and kind of creepy. I had to make sure that the door behind me stayed open or it would have locked me in.” Lexington, Kentucky.

Screenshot

pippyzz Fuckin’ days.

Screenshot

Escapista That Train Don’t Stop Here Any More.

Screenshot

fotografie.berlin “This Picture is not photoshopped. It’s real. Don’t really know how and why they made it.”

Screenshot

GraemeNicol American Dollar.

Screenshot

Mr. Mark Classic Blues in Cuba.

Screenshot

trocker “Sienkiewicza”

. Sienkiewicza .

Shifted*Exposure Sun Beam.

Screenshot

stOOpidgErL “Where Was God That Night”

Screenshot

photosecosse Nevada City, Cart and Cabin, Ghost Town, Montana, USA.

Screenshot

Jano De Cesare Corner mood. A corner in an abandoned asylum in Pistoia, Tuscany.

Screenshot

picaddict Highgate Cemetery West London. This beautiful statue lying there as if it would be alive had to be covered with branches. (a wish of the the relatives) but the guide was so kind to clear the grave a little bit for us. I have never seen before in my life such a beautiful touching statue…

Screenshot

tofu_minx Salton Sea - Bombay Beach - Broken Solitude.

Screenshot

anacm.silva Aldeia de Mora - Vimioso, Portugal.

Screenshot

bsidez Years of decay.

Screenshot

Darwin Bell Rusty but proud.

Screenshot

DanielKHC “Tyersall House”.

Screenshot

stephmel “The Lonely Steps”.

Screenshot

scottnj Curtains, a tattered old curtain hangs through the broken panes of glass in this abandoned old house.

Screenshot

inesbexiga Door, Sobral de Monte Agraço - Portugal.

Screenshot

Wolfgang Staudt Decay - the door in a hospital, Saarbruecken, Germany.

Screenshot

sheke1 “Somebody’s Bad Luck”

Screenshot

Ride My Pony Corner Desk.

Screenshot

sheke1 Bells Piano.

Screenshot

Gundross “Postnuclear”

Chair

bsidez La Chartreuse. It’s a beautiful abandoned fortress in Liege, Belgium.

Screenshot

phill.d “It never ceases to amaze me the different colours and effects you can achieve in a boring concrete R.C.P drain.”

Screenshot

Pavel Horak Industrial Documentary: The Stain.

Screenshot

Timothy Neesam “Broadway”.

Screenshot

briantmurphy “You are beautiful”. This building is just a mile or so from downtown New Orleans, on the bank of the Mississippi.

Screenshot

Gundross ” Postindustrial beauty”

Postindustrial beauty

A.Guandalini Inside an abandoned country house, behind closed windows.

Screenshot

Eric Matthew Gustafson “Steel Office”

Steel Office

Dan Dumitriu “Post-modern burial”

Post-modern burial

Last Click

Serret “levels of initiation”

levels of initiation

For the last click, we present the image that got this entire ball of inspiration rolling. “A Moment Suspended In Time” was the picture we found that sparked this whole showcase being put together.

Marcin Stawiarz “A Moment Suspended In Time”

<br /> A Moment Suspended In Time

Sources and Resources

Smashing Editorial (al)