Palladium City Explorers Series Visits Lyon

The popular Explorer Series by Palladium Boots continuous to evolve, with the next stage of the project seeing two London-based creatives hit the streets of Lyon, France, to experience the city's current boom of street art, music and alternative culture. While the city is famed for its swanky food, classical architecture and cafe culture, Instagram Photographer, Emmanuel Cole + Writer, Georgia LA were assigned to discover Lyon's more underground, creative side.

The two socially slick folk tag along with local collective, Paperboys, to experience the growing street art scene, a new wave of record shops, and most intriguingly, a visit to the now-derelict Palladium factory in Pont de Cheruy. If anyone from Palladium is reading this, you can take me to the factory any time! Hit the video below to experience the decaying factory that once produced the boots which were adopted by the French Foreign Legion, as their footwear of choice in the North African desert. Bonus fact - Palladium started business as a vulcanized rubber company, producing tires for the aviation industry.

While the team experienced lots the things that make Lyon a popular location for cities breaks, it's the thriving underground scene that really piques interest - the city is fast becoming a place we're keen to visit on our Euro Road Trip.

Next stop for Palladium's City Explorers series is Bristol, England, which should make for a sweet contrast from Lyon.

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Abandoned American | A Conversation with Our Ruins

Every so often you discover a new blog that you instantly feel connected too. I still get that same buzz now, as I did back even before I had a blog myself. The buzz is usually followed with, "Oh nice!", which generally means I'm your new biggest fan. I've never been the most expressive...

Our Ruins definitely falls into that category, and from what I've seen on their comments section, a lot of people agree with me. Put simply, Our Ruins is a blog about abandoned and derelict places in America. They're a team of two, based in Texas, but will travel anywhere to seek out those unique - and usually once thriving - subjects, ready to document their finding before they're totally erased.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Valerie of Our Ruins, to get a better understanding of their love of abandoned spaces, why they do it and where the thrill comes from:

Where did your interest in abandoned places and spaces come from?

Our interest in abandoned places came from our frequent road trips around Texas. We are hikers, so we tend to drive through rural places on our way to hiking destinations where we noticed these abandoned homes and businesses along the side of the road. We know that a lot of people see them, but they are simply just places that are passed by. We wanted to shine a spotlight on them before they disappear because we believe they represent an unknown or forgotten history.  They are essentially, in our minds, relics of our society that tell a story through their decay and abandonment.

How is it working as a duo, do you both have similar tastes and look to seek the same things?

We work really well together because we see the abandoned places from different perspectives which means our end product includes a more comprehensive set of photographs for each place. Though sometimes we have to work on our camera sharing skills…we really do need two cameras.

How do you find out about abandoned places and where do you wish to document next?

We typically find abandoned places by deciding on what part of the state we want to go to. Then we research online any abandoned places or ghost towns around that area. We start driving in that direction, not always reaching our destination because we find so much on the way there and/or we run out of light. Basically, we make sure to visit small towns and avoid major roads. We are never really sure where we will find the next abandoned place, but that’s a large part of the adventure and the appeal of exploring abandonments.

In terms of where we will go next, we would like to go further west in the U.S. as I used to live out in Las Vegas, Nevada…and I remember seeing quite a few abandoned places amongst the beautiful desert landscape. Also Jon is Canadian, and so we plan on documenting the abandoned places in the western provinces where he used to live. Though we will always continue to drive and explore Texas as it’s a large state with plenty of places to explore.

We're all looking forward to seeing what they discover next. Explore more of Our Ruins here. Further Urban Exploration here, here + here.

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Alabama Museum of Wonders

The beauty of taking a few days off at Christmas is that I actually get to watch telly - I can go weeks without even giving TV a second thought sometimes. So when I came across a programme called 'American Pickers', I instantly realised I've been missing out on a total goldmine. These chaps have a brilliant job - they travel around America, looking for interesting items to buy and sell on, to make a profit. But the interesting part of the show is that we get to see inside some of the most intriguing and curious places you could ever imagine. Dream job!

Above is the Alabama Museum of Wonders, Seale, AL, run by artist/mad-collector Butch Anthony. A quick Google Maps search suggests this place is properly in the middle of nowhere, "drive up anytime and hook your horn to find me", the website say! The American Pickers had a field-day, discovering rare VW memorabilia, original mascot costumes from the 1950's, rare medical equipment, sought-after pottery, odd rock collections, fast food and transport signs and even a section with questionable Big Foot-related paraphernalia. We should celebrate our curiosity, you just never know where I might lead us. Imagine it taking you to a place like this?!

Read an interview with the man himself here. See more photos of the Museum of Wonders here. One man's junk is another man's treasure hey.

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Inspiration - Penique Productions' Inflatables

There's nothing like a blast of colour to brighten up our gloomy December days. We're all familiar with balloons and we are with rooms too, so Penique Productions combined the two to create something which is pretty eye-catching. The idea behind the project was to take coloured inflatables and fill up spaces which other people have created, making a new environment altogether. By filling each space with a different coloured inflatable it lets the viewer see the room in a whole new way, creating new shapes and points of interest but also making each space seem very similar (even though one could be a flat in Nottingham and the other a church in Madrid) to one another.

The guys behind the project have been traveling around Europe to find interesting locations for their on-going project, and it seems the inflatables can be adapted to work anywhere. They have even done a room which housed a fashion show. It's quite hard to describe but when I saw these I thought of urban exploration. Not that they are very similar but seeing the spaces in totally different way to what they were built must be a really exhilarating experience.

Below are some shots of how the project looks from the outside -

For more information on this project and the group visit Penique Productions. All images from their site.

Have you entered my Hackett giveaway yet? You still have time if not.

Unoccupied

Some recent photographs from a spare of the moment bit of Urban Exploration. Driving from a country pub yesterday we spotted this little abandoned building in the middle of a field. Sadly I didn't have my SLR on my, just a basic one had to do. The gas station in the first image had a really nice story to it, the pub we visited an a photograph of the staff dating back from 1909. It's fair to say the area is pretty sleepy so it can't get much business nowadays but it was quite a site. As I thought, there is no info on what this building was used for and when it was occupied last.

The area between my town and the next city is like a huge maze, roads connecting to unnamed roads, canals, county pubs and quite a lot of swanky house. You wouldn't think it living in Blackpool but I live 15 minutes from all of this.

I decided to wear my new Peter Jensen Union Jack waterproof jacket as it looked like rain, probably wasn't the most practical option for climbing around derelict spaces.

Urban Exploration

Images above from 28dayslater

Wild horses in front of Chernobyl,  2005

This one's by me.

For my current uni project I have chosen to research into Urban Exploration, the exploration of abandoned, derelict and unseen places. I've become pretty obsessed with it over the past few weeks and even though it's a relatively underground hobby, I have discovered lots of people in to UE community and some epic images/stories. This places are a photographer/historians dream!

If any of these images take your fancy please visit the first linked site, but I'm warning you, you could waste your whole day looking on there.

The final image is by me, technically I didn't explore any derelict buildings but I did come across some interesting things at the local park, including an old ww2 bunker.

Urban Exploration is a very personal thing, you are seeing a glimpse into the past, feeling the hope of what once was and what it turned into. It is also a very real way of connecting to your town or cities past, which some people will never get to see. Does that make sense, what do you guys think about these images?