Walter Arnold and the Art of Abandonment

The Final View by Walter Arnold

Last week, during the WPPI convention in Las Vegas, I met a brilliant photographic artist with an unusual body of work. In his Art of Abandonment series, Walter Arnold has captured the beauty of sites that have been abandoned and neglected. By using high dynamic range photography and printing exclusively on aluminum, he creates prints that have an intense saturation and an almost eerie feeling.

Arnold's initial inspiration for the Art of Abandonment was an airplane graveyard in St. Augustine, Florida that he discover in 2009.  Other sites in the series include Grossinger's Resort in the Catskills of New York, The Scranton Lace Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Tennessee Brewery in Memphis, Tennessee.

For the last five years, Arnold has used Black River Imaging to produce the metal prints that he sells at art festivals and galleries.  In his presentation at WPPI, he pointed out that he has his images printed on metal because it provides "astounding depth and dimension.

Check out Walter Arnold's unique images at www.artofabandonment.com where his blog highlights the images and the stories behind the images.

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