“They used to do it better, back in the day” is probably a saying as old as time.  Every generations harkens back to a time where everything was better.  For me nowhere is this more true then when it comes to architecture.  I had the immense privilege of growing up in a house that was hundreds of years old.  Yes, the pluming wasn’t great, there were certainly no ensuite bathrooms and at night there were creeks and it could get outright spooky.  But I had the pleasure of living in huge rooms, with 4 meter ceilings.  As a child I  played in cavernous attics and  cellars.  As in adult I took pleasure in all the details of the house, the detailed cornices, the intricate parquet, the thick walls, the carved statues.  Photographer Matthias Haker takes pictures of abandoned places and it is heart breaking to see these beautiful places abandoned and decaying.  What is wrong with our society that we are allowing this to happen.  Why do we no longer treasure the old?  We are allowing these beautiful building to just rot?  The pictures are stunning, and there is a nostalgic beauty to them which is unique.  Nevertheless I wish that these places were treasured and lived in as opposed to forgotten and empty.

Check out Matthias Haker’s Deviant Art page.  You can order prints of some of the pictures.