common☦︎death

this is one of my favorite photos i have ever taken. i had passed this abandoned house many times and could never get into it. it was an old historic house that was prevented from being torn down so was just forgotten and overgrown. one day, i noticed someone had broken off enough of the plywood covering the back door that you could squeeze inside the hole. i was immediately met with a rotting smell… the mold was awful and there were dead animals everywhere, including one trapped in the ceiling joists. it was very dark because most of the windows were boarded. when i turned to climb the stairs i found this… a very old, broken stairlift suspended in motion forever up a rotting track. something about this old house with the old wallpaper and the serious decay and dilapidation was just haunting to me. i wonder who lived here, if they died and left the house to sit and collapse…. usually i will look around for clues like letters or photos or even a diary if i get lucky but i went upstairs and very quickly found someone squatting there. so i left without poking around for answers, but this still remains my favorite shot to this day even if i don’t know anything about the story behind it.