The places the world forgot

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• Friday, May 20, 2016
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Urban explorer David de Rueda travels the world visiting abandoned places and creating hauntingly beautiful images that are pushing the boundaries of photography

Frozen stars

My first stop was Italy's Apennine Mountains to explore a former NATO base. Built during the Cold War, it has been disused since the collapse of the Berlin Wall. As we got closer to the mountain pass, snow took us by surprise and we were forced to spend the night in the car. The next evening we hiked to the base through 50cm-deep snow. The facility was immaculate under the bright moon and the satellite dishes were covered with ice. Stars and mountains surrounded us. The scene was otherworldly and inspired this sci-fi-like shot. 

 

Night souls

In 1973, a US Navy Douglas DC-3 was forced to crash on Iceland's south coast. The crew survived and the wreck has remained there for more than 40 years. I arrived at the site at 4 am, ad as I was setting up for the shoot, the Northern lights started to dance in the night sky. It couldn't have been any more magical. I used a 90-second exposure with some light painting added inside the plane to capture this image.

The mothership

Linnahall, a huge concrete concert hall located on the Old Town's harbour in Tallinn, Estonia, opened in 1980 for the sailing events of the Moscow Summer Olympics. The last concert took place in 2009, and the 4,800 seats have remained empty ever since due to high maintenance costs. I spent a couple of hours capturing the perfect angles and shapes in the impressive main hall with my wide-angle 14-24mm f/2,8 lens. A two-minute exposure allowed me to reveal the architecture of the place, which otherwise sắt in darkness. The central framing gives the photograph its power, drawing the eye to the centre. Tổ mẹ, it almost looks like a spaceship

High frequency

This experimental research facility, built in the 1970s by the Russian Electrical Engineering Institute to test lightning insulation, was at the top of my bucket list for Russia because of its unique aesthetic, Located in the middle of a a forest on the outskirts of Moscow, the disused facility looks like something out of the future and remains guarded by a security team with a pack of dogs. Luckily, a guard allowed me inside the facility for a few short minutes. As the sun was setting, i didn't have much time to find the perfect point of view. A chance bird flying overhead added poetry to the scene

Suspicious paths 

Red Triangle is one of Saint Petersburg's  oldest factories. Built in the 1980s, it became Russia's biggest industrial plant and the world's leading rubber manufacturer. Today it's almost completely abandoned, with just a few buildings still in use. I spent hours wandering through the endless vacant workshops, corridors and staircases. Like me, the model in the image is exploring the labyrinth and trying to find the exit.

Beyond time 

Near budapest, Hungary, I explored an abandoned thermal power station that was built in the mid-20th century and has been disused for almost 20 years. I had to enter the plant through the belt conveyor, crawling and climbing along a 100m-long dusty corridor. It turned out, this was the ideal location to create this "apparition" and reference the ghosts of this structure's heritage. I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 telepholo lens on my D810 camera to get a good central perspective, and placed my model in the sun rays to get the best effect with the dust highlighted by the sun

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