Vacant

I had the opportunity to shoot a century old house this past spring while volunteering with Elm Street Cultural Arts Village of Woodstock, GA (www.elmstreetarts.org). The plan is to renovate this historic property into an art studio/gallery/art school. We were doing a walkthrough with the mayor and some of his associates to get our eyes on the derelict and plan what was going to be needed to fix the place up. It needs a lot of work. It strikes me every time I see a place like this, the amount of energy and history that has worked its magic, charm and, ultimately, it's destructive force on the place. Seems to me that no matter what happens in a space, positive or negative, time is a savage when it comes to the forgotten. All that are left in that old farmhouse now are ghosts from the old city. Maybe we can bring it back to life and fill it with some warm and creative energy. Regardless, the forgotten never grow on their own. Their stories are always sad and their doors may as well lead to nowhere. They either find someone who will remember them, or, like this old pile of wood, go back to the dust they came from. You don't have to be dead to die. Next time you're out, take a look at the empty forgotten spaces you come across. There's always a story as to how they came to be forgotten.