Why I seek out abandoned places
A few days ago The Globe and Mail published this essay about my love of exploring and photographing abandoned places. I have been thrilled that so many people connected with the piece and wrote back to tell me.
This kind of writing, where I can sit down and over a couple of hours conceive, write, self-edit, and complete a piece is so refreshing when most of my work is a fun but much more exhaustive (and exhausting) process of researching, interviewing, transcribing fact-checking, writing, restructuring, and fretting about a story. Hard hitting journalism this is not, but it sure was fun.
Here I am writing in the style I chose to write in, about things I choose to care about. And still people connect with it! I feel lucky to have an editor who says yes to my strange ideas, and even seems very happy to get them.
He tells me that this piece has the unique "honor" of being held longer than anything he has ever held before. It seems that major political upheaval trumps contemplative evergreen essays in the opinion pages. As well it should! But I am glad to finally be able to share this one.
A few readers asked to see some of my photos (images included with the piece are not mine) so I am working on posting a few here. They are not high quality, as I only recently realized that other people are interested enough for me to share.
