Joel M Nadler Photography

Abandoned

Documenting decay across the United States.

I started visiting abandoned places when I was in high school. It started with exploring an old asylum that I had read about in a Weird New Jersey book. After going to this first place, I wanted to see more of these places because it was incredible to see everything left behind.

I soon learned that the asylum I’d become so fascinated with was going to be demolished. This led me to produce a documentary film on the hospital and eventually got me more interested in photography.

Once I graduated high school, I became more interested in the photographic element of exploring and started taking more detailed images of the places I was visiting. Today, I’ve traveled thousands of miles to hundreds of abandoned places along the east coast to the midwestern U.S. Below are a collection of images from the places I have been.

Today, many of these places have either been demolished, rehabbed for a new use, or are still abandoned. I feel it’s important to show people what has happened to these places in the hopes that something can be done to bring new light to them.

In 2022, I published my first book with Arcadia Publishing, Abandoned New Jersey: Forgotten Spaces of the Garden State

© 2024 Joel M Nadler Photography

Helped by Józsa Attila Gergő