Meet Simon Sugden - the Yorkshire chef who cooked for the Queen and now photographs abandoned derelict buildings

“But when my grandparents died I decided to get a camera, pick up a rucksack and head out to take photographs.”

Sugden loves most aspects of photography, but his main passion is architecture, which led him to start taking images of abandoned buildings.

He works freelance for a building company and Bradford Council, which has been helpful

in photographing the interior of buildings normally closed to the general public.

Most recently he has been documenting the Darley Street Market project.

“I am proud to be documenting these amazing places for the next generation,” says the totally self-taught photographer who lives in Keighley.

His photography explores the idea that buildings have a second chance after their useful life, where nature and decay take over to create a new kind of beauty.

“I just became fascinated by derelict buildings – old mills in particular – and by the stories they could tell. They have a second life to them which I want to document before they disappear forever.”

He is passionate about photographing buildings in Yorkshire, but also travels the country with his camera.

“We have a network of people who alert each other to places that have been abandoned,” he explains. “I then have to go about trying to find an owner and getting permission to go in. Once I’ve explained what I want to do and why most people are quite happy for me to go inside.” Although he does admit that it isn’t always possible.

“Recently I was told about a cottage in North Yorkshire and everything had been left as it was – as if the person had just walked out and yet it was years and years ago.

“I never stage anything. I just photograph it as people have left it. You are looking at someone’s past and that is reflected in my photographs. Some of my favourites are small cottages and houses, you just see so much just left but it makes it interesting to see how people lived.” He has also photographs abandoned old cars and even fighter jets.

He does have to take care about the state of the buildings he is planning to enter which have to be assessed and health and safety aspects have to be considered.

Regrettably, some buildings are found to be just too dangerous to enter.

“I wouldn’t even go into a building if I felt it wasn’t safe to do so. You can tell if water has been getting in and that will mean the floorboards will be damp.”

Although he did have one occasion when his foot went through a ceiling, but he wasn’t injured.

“I do worry about kids getting into some of the buildings. Not only to they sometimes cause graffiti and damage they could be putting themselves at risk.

“After they have been used and are decaying, they can be looked at negatively but there is beauty in decay.

“It’s just showing where I have been over that time, I never damage anything, I never break in, I just go in there and get the pictures.

“There is an old farmhouse I got into Snowdonia, it has a yellow fireplace, which was amazing. It is like a little time capsule."

Some people might find spending your days in often less than hospitable surroundings, which are usually damp, dusty -and vermin infested, an unusual occupation. But for Sugden it is part of the challenge. You get the feeling the harder he has to work to get the picture she wants the better the outcome.

“I sometimes have to wear breathing apparatus before I go into a building,” he says.

He likes to use natural light where possible to create his evocative photographs, many of which have a painting-like quality.

"I never like to use flash," says Sugden who has just started using a mirrorless camera. He admits that some of the abandoned buildings do give him the creeps, and in one building in Liverpool, known to be one of the most haunted in England he couldn’t get out quickly enough.

He has been forced to slow down a bit recently as he suffered from arthritis in his hip but a recent hip surgery has him back to full fitness and back climbing through windows to get the perfect shot.

Sugden has received a number of awards, including one from the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford in the Drawn by Light competition for his photograph Lighting Up the Yard (Crossley Evans Scrapyard).

This pushed him to study photography further, and his images have featured in magazines and newspapers and also on album covers.

An opportunity came up for an exhibition at the Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, where his work was shown under the title ‘The Beauty in Decay’ for three months from July until September 2019.

This was followed by another exhibition in November 2020 entitled ‘Textile Mills and Derelict Thrills’

Abandoned Britain is his second book for Amberley Publishing, following Derelict Britain: Beauty in Decay, which was published in 2020.

It features a number of Mills across Yorkshire in varying states of dereliction, an old Bradford Primary School, a West Yorkshrie dye works, a glass factory in Doncaster and even an old swimming baths. Many of them have a earie quality to them and yet also a dramatic beauty.

The foreword to the book is written by Tim Sanders of the Royal Photographic Society

“I initially discovered Simon’s work with the publication of his first book Derelict Britain: Beauty in Decay. It did not take long into our first conversation to realise the massive passion Simon has for his photographic subjects.”

He described Abandoned Britain as “a treasure trove of evocative buildings – derelict, abandoned and, in many cases, close to obliteration by demolition, redevelopment or plain decrepitude.

“I am sure many of the buildings appear dismal and disintegrating at first sight, but they are transformed under Simon’s lens to be evocative and atmospheric, prompting our imaginations and often imparting a sense of sadness. This is no more so than when he includes some relic of human occupation in his compositions, with a jarring emotional impact.

“In short, Simon has given these buildings a new life in this book, preserving a tangible visual record for present and future generations.”

There are still some places left that Sugden would like to photograph may be for another book or exhibition.

"I would love to get in and photograph the old Bingley Baths but for some reason it is proving difficult. I’d also love to do some collaboration with the University of Bradford, maybe with Bradford being City of Culture in 2025 there might be some opportunities around that."

http://suggysphotography.uk/

Abandoned Britain by Simon Sugden is published by Amberley Publishing