Photographer captures derelict buildings to challenge beauty standard
Bleak beauty: Photographer shares the unexpected allure of abandoned buildings – including a house that’s not been touched since the owner fled 40 years ago
- Kenneth Allan, 54, from Newport-on-Tay, Scotland started Life After in 2015
- Photographer discovered abandoned castles, houses and even torpedo testing sites
- He wanted to capture beauty in the ‘brutality, decay and dereliction in Scotland’
A photographer and poet who travels Scotland in search of eerie and beautiful abandoned buildings has revealed the unexpected beauty of dereliction in haunting images.
When Kenneth Allan, from Newport-on-Tay, Fife, stumbled onto a torpedo testing site in Loch Long back in 2015, he realised he was on to something.
The photographer started his Life After project, which focuses on the beauty in the left behind, from derelict houses to castle taken over weeds.
While working on his project, Allan stumbled upon a house that had been abandoned by its owner in the 70s or 80s. Located in Argyll and Bute on the West Coast of Scotland, he renamed it Anonymous House.
All the furniture and belongings of the previous inhabitants are still there, with mugs, books, teapots and open newspapers all waiting for their owner to return.
Anonymous House: Photographer Kenneth Allan from Fife was told the owner of the house had quit the UK for America 30 to 40 years ago and left all of her belongings behind and the door of the property in Argyll and Bute unlocked
A torpedo testing site in Loch Long that photograph Kenneth Allan, 54, from Fife discovered in 2015. It inspired him to start his Life After project
The photographer from Fife, 54, wishes to find the positive in the derelict, even though this abandoned Territorial Army building in Renfrewshire would not immediately appear like a beautiful place
‘Anonymous House was a fascinating discovery. I had been informed the lady of the house left Scotland for America, 30 – 40 years ago, leaving all her possessions and the door unlocked,’ Allan said.
‘I wanted these photographs to stop time,’ Allan explained, ‘to open a door through which you walk as a viewer, all becoming still around you.’
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This is only one of the five locations Allan relentlessly visited since 2015, and he reveals that perfecting his craft over the years has taught him ‘to be patient’.
‘As a photographer I have learnt that I must be prepared to make relentless journeys to the same location, sit silently in awakening dawns, endure unforgiving climates, climb snow-capped mountains and discover hidden places,’ he said.
The furniture in Anonymous House has been there for decades after the owner went to America, leaving all her belongings behind. Allan visited the house repeatedly between 2015 and 2017
Time stands still: Broken chairs, a cabinet and mildewed wallpaper can be seen in Abandoned House, which has been uninhabited for 30 to 40 years
A photograph of the kitchen of Abandoned House. Tea pots, mugs and baking trays still await the return of their owner. Allan said he found the house fascinating
Allan also photographed a WW2 drill hall called TA Building. Located in Paisley, it was built in 1896 by famous Paisley architect Thomas Graham Abercrombie as the headquarters of the 2nd Renfrewshire Rifle Volunteers.
The building served as a war office from 1896 – 1921 then it was decommissioned and sold to the University of the West of Scotland for academic use. It was sold to a development company in 2007 but has been lying empty for at least 20 years.
Among the places he captured, was Buchanan Castle, in Stirlingshire, which Allan refers to as a ‘Crumbling structure [that] falls by the twilight.’ The former noble dwelling is now overtaken by weeds.
This once beautiful piece of architecture was passed from one owner to the next, until it was decided in 1950 to take away its roof in order to reduce the tax bill. The castle deteriorated quickly as a result, and nature reclaimed its land.
‘These works allow you to see the beauty which lies within the brutality, decay and dereliction in Scotland,’ Allan explained.
A Territorial Army building in Renfrewshire with shattered windows and crumbling derelict walls. Allan said he ‘wanted these photographs to stop time’
A view of TA building from the inside. This former drill hall is located in Paisley. It was built in 1896 by famous Paisley architect Thomas Graham Abercrombie as the headquarters of the 2nd Renfrewshire Rifle Volunteers
Pophail Village, near Loch Fyn, Scotland. Pophail is a ghost village that was built in the 1970s as accommodation for workers employed at a concrete oil platform construction, but was never inhabited. An artistic collective drew a graffiti on its walls and structures in 2009
Roots growing on the walls of Buchanan Castle, which was built in 1852-1858 as a replacement for the Buchanan Auld House. The land used to be the seat of the Buchanan Clan, but was sold to the Graham Clan in the 17th century
The ruins of Buchanan Castle photographed by Kenneth Allan. Buchanan Castle was passed on from owner to owner between 1652 and 1950
Nature quickly reclaimed the land of Buchanan Castle after its roof was taken away for tax reasons in 1950
‘Both intimate and alienating at the same time, the photographs allow you to contemplate the composition and begin to construct your own narrative for the image’.
Allan also captured Polphail Village, a ghost village that was built in the 1970s but never inhabited. It is located on the west coast of the Cowal peninsula, on Loch Fyn.
Villages like Polphail were developed as accommodation for workers employed at a concrete oil platform construction.
In 2009, following rumours of demolition, Agents of Change, an artistic collective, came to Polphail and drew a graffiti art gallery on its walls. The village was eventually demolished in 2016.
Allan was given his first camera at the age of ten years old. From that point on, photography became an integral and ever-present part of Allan’s life.
Allen wanted to ‘strip away preconceived and stereotypical notions of beauty’ and finds the pictures ‘both intimate and alienating at the same time.’
Another view of the Torpedo Testing Site after a rainy day. Allan said his pictures were meant to be ‘both intimate and alienating at the same time’
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