Shooting Abandoned buildings: BTS, Dimenticato in Italy project - Day 3

There were 11 locations planned for today but to due being pushed for time and spending a little longer than expected in some places, this meant we missed out on four locations. Two villas and an orphanage were too far to travel compared to how much time we had left in the day we as a team we had to decide what locations were the most important and what ones we could drop. We were happy with the 7 we managed to do and worked hard as a team all day getting in and out of these locations. We had to make decisions based on what locations were more important to shoot as we were leaving Italy the following day. All photos in this blog were taken on mine/ somebody else’s phone and are not from my camera.

Terror Teatro - 8:30am

This location was one of my personal favourites from the whole trip, the eeriness inside and absence of people was was so strong and the scale of the theatre was beautiful. This was a theatre that would of been used for plays and pantomimes. Getting into this location was tricky as it was very hidden and we did not find the entrance for quite a while. Getting inside consisted of climbing some wire with gloves and when we were inside we had to tread carefully across the wooden floor beams because the wooden flooring around that was at high risk of collapsing in.

The theatre had a strong red tone to it and as we had got there very early there was little sunlight coming in meaning we had to do longer exposures to light up our images. It was real team work getting inside and getting across the wooden beams inside and up to the level where we wanted to photograph, so we all really helped in each other and advised each other how to carefully move about the building.

The empty chairs had a creepy look upon them, rows and rows of dusty, lifeless chairs which had been left unused for years. The way they were all facing the stage, you could just picture what it was like to have so many people sitting there back when the theatre was in use and how loud and cheerful it would of been inside, the silence that was there when I visited was the reason it was in a way unsettling because in a place like that it would never usually be silent.

Green Scuola of Travel - 11:30

This school only had a few classrooms and a teachers bed room on one of the lower floors insinuating that it was a small school with not many pupils. The rooms were left with objects that related to studies like Geography and Travel. The school was thought to of only been abandoned for a few years and many books and handwritten work still remained inside the building.

There was also a library with tons of books, piled up on one another. I loved looking through the books and seeing the diversity between Italian learning and the books they used and had within their library compared to British books we would usually see in a library in the UK.

Monastery Pastel - 14:00

This location was quick but cheerful, it was a narrow pink-pastel monastery in a rural area, we had to climb through the tiniest gap to get inside which was quite amusing. There was really only one room to photograph in this location as the upstairs had not much to offer with empty small rooms and not much to photograph inside.

Yellow Church - 16:00

This location was more out of the way and was my preferred one to the location before. This beautiful larger yellow Church was lovely inside, with a huge decorative alter that stood out from the yellow glow inside the building was amazing. I really enjoyed this location and the murals and art work it had inside.

Beautiful Stairs Villa - 18:00

Beautiful Stairs Chapel

This huge Villa was fun to explore, it was long pure white corridors and a great set of stairs to photograph. Some of the rooms were too dark to photograph as little light was entering the room and they did not have much inside the rooms either. A lot of the furniture in this Villa had been removed and not much was left besides the architectural shapes and patterns that made it a great place to visit.

After exploring the whole property we found this tiny chapel inside the huge Villa that was hidden away through many rooms and small corridors, it also had a tiny tower you could go up inside up many stairs to see the bell tower and the nice views surrounding. The ceiling in this chapel was incredible and the details were so precise, much like many of the other Italian ceilings I got to see on this trip.

Cinema Teatro - 19:00

The second to last location of the day was a Cinema Theatre, it was more like an entertainment centre we noticed. It had a club, bar room, music room and a theatre, when we arrived there was also a mans walking shoes left by the front door which we later found out belonged to the homeless man living inside the nightclub. Although this location did not have many huge photo opportunities the music room had great colours and a piano which I did get an amazing shot of.

Villa Veranda - 19:30

The final location of our last full day was a good one for symmetry, which the guys I was with were looking for in order to complete their Youtube tutorial video for photography tips. The room with the veranda and the arm chairs was the most interesting room in this Villa to photograph with the old chests and arm chairs, however I actually found a personal favourite room in one of the bedrooms where there were two huge mirrors opposite one another and two huge beds, the whole room was styled with wooden furniture and the golden hour light coming through the windows brought this amazing glow inside the room so I decided to take a Villa Selfie in the biggest mirror I had seen yet.