Urban-exploring in Charlotte, beyond

Driscoll says he’s only been posting his photos from urban exploring since August, and since then has gotten a lot of feedback — including a tip to check out the decaying Carolina Theatre in Uptown. In 1978, the Carolina Theatre closed after operating for more than 50 years, serving as a movie theater — it was the first in the Carolinas to show Gone with the Wind — in addition to featuring vaudeville acts, musical performances and other forms of live entertainment. Recently, the Foundation of The Carolinas, Charlotte Center Partners and others have renewed efforts to rebuild the theater. The Foundation has proposed turning Carolina Theatre into a civic meeting hall, and relegating entertainment to the weekend.
Mert Jones, who says the first time she ventured into an abandoned building to take photos was in the sixth grade, stumbled upon this church in west Charlotte one cold day earlier this month. “When I was inside I felt bad for the congregation of the church because they had to close the doors. I was [also] thinking of people without shelter who could really benefit from knowing about this space. They could be sheltered from the snow and cold here. That felt ironic to me because a church is by definition a haven of sorts for people, but here is one that sits empty, not a haven for anyone.”
When Jim McGuire goes urban exploring, he says in addition to clothing, headlamps, boots and props, he also likes to have a model in tow. “I like to bring super models and use the urban scene for background contrast.” This photo was taken behind a radio station “somewhere on Wilkinson Boulevard.”
Who says you need a big camera to be a true urban explorer? Desiree Kane is known for capturing the most artistic yet gritty images with her iPhone. Take, for example, this shot she took at an old arcade off I-85 on the South Carolina border. “Mobile phones have given access to places that even the human eye, let alone a full-sized camera lens, can’t reach,” Kane says. “I love to shove my phone in between wood panels boarding up windows, in keyholes to see what’s on the other side, and under things I otherwise couldn’t see under because the space is so tiny. I love having this kind of access. It makes me feel like a secret agent.”
For Justin Driscoll, the older the place, the better. After hearing about Stonewall Jackson Training School, which opened in 1909, from an older native Charlottean, he stumbled upon the site one night while driving to an auto body shop in Concord. The state juvenile facility has a sordid history — according to an article the Charlotte Observer ran last year, a number of men who lived there in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s say they were mentally, physically and sexually abused. “The place initially gave me anxiety for the sheer fact there were so many buildings to explore — I was like a kid in a candy store,” Driscoll says. “But some of the buildings were worse than others — this really cold, eerie feeling in some of the rooms, especially one basement. I would be looking through the view-finder of my camera, and it felt like someone was behind me or looking at me from across the room. My pitbull Charlie comes on some missions with me. He is a very happy and fearless pup. On this particular occasion, he just dug his paws into the floor, looked up at me and wouldn’t go any deeper into the building. I’m not trying to make this a ghost story, but something didn’t feel right.”
The best photos are often found unintentionally. One March day in 2012, while walking with a friend “on or near Central Avenue” — you know it was random if you can’t even remember where you took a photo — Natrice Bullard stumbled upon this pathway. She says the textures of the brick, concrete, dirt and grime drew her in. “It was cool to me because it looked like a picture behind the fence. I’m not even sure where it led to.”
Taken in Blacksburg, Va.
“When doing nudes in strange places, it always adds an extra thrill of being discovered,” McGuire says. “In most cases, people will shy away due to their own embarrassment.”
Jones calls this photo of Fat City (the old entity, before it was razed and replaced with condos), taken with her 35mm camera in the early 2000s, “a detail shot of someone else’s footprint on the building.”
Taken in Huntersville
Taken in NoDa
This week’s cover image offers a glimpse of the abandoned East Coast Bible College, which opened in 1976 and is located near Charlotte-Douglas Airport. At one time, the campus housed more than 100 students and faculty. Since its closing in 1999, firefighters from all over the Carolinas have used the facility for training. In 2004, the defunct college caught fire.