Johnny Joo gives the world a glimpse of places long forgotten through the lens of his camera. He is a photographer by trade but an urban explorer at heart. The scenes he shares are covered in weeds, moss and cobwebs. They serve as an eerie reminder that nothing lasts forever.
Joo cautions that viewers should appreciate the subjects of his incredible photos but keep them in mind also as examples of humanity’s wastefulness and the impact society has on nature.”It’s really important to think about just how much we leave behind,” the 25-year-old Mentor native said. “I want to try and make a change in the way people think.”
He’s photographed abandoned malls, stadiums, schools, hospitals and houses. His pictures from inside Mike Tyson’s deserted Ohio mansion and the decaying Geuga Lake Amusement have gone viral on the Internet.
Photo Analysis
This photograph is a true representation of the past. It represents a discovery of forgotten things which brings a realization that this place was someones past; the history of lives we never even knew. There is great use of leading lines and depth of field within this photograph. The layered chairs, which represent a sense of structure which once used to stand, helps to draw the audience to the daylight in the distant windows. I believe this small amount of natural light represents a feeling of hope that is left about the building. The carefully positioned chairs create a strong contrast and juxtaposition to the rest of the building which is completely wrecked and derelict. This use of contrast may be a reference to the atmosphere which once was present to how it appears to be now. Personally I see these this photo as a missed opportunity to help those who don’t have a place to call home such as the homeless.
Tyhe captures his subjects in a way that is truly representative of the experience. He first started taking images at aged 14 but really found his passion for the subject and deiced to peruse it as a full-time career when he was 17. His photography works stems from his childhood of growing up on the Coast, admiring the natural environment in ways that had to be captured with a camera. This crosses over into his design work as he tries to incorporate his love for the natural environment and geometric structures into his designs.
I selected and edited my favorite images from this shoot which I thought showed the area I walked around the best. They display the idea of disposable goods and and how the weather and environment has effected urban areas.
I decided however to plan the shoot before I went ahead and did it. This would allow me to have a general idea before hand of what I wanted, and needed to achieve to produce an effective overall image regarding the topic of New Topographics. These are my ideas:
Once this was complete I decided it was time to move on to the shoot itself, and so decided to use the areas regarding the idea sheet of town, Grouville and St Brelades. These were my outcomes:
Once the shoot was complete I narrowed the images down to only ten of my favourite pictures. By doing so it would make it easier for me to select the final image that I believe to be the most relevent and successful overall. These were my choices on the ten best images:
I chose this image because of how I loved the clear contrast between nature and the taking over of it by man, seen by the run down sign surrounded by overgrown grass. I found this to be aesthetically pleasing created by the use of a depth of field, by doing so it blurs our the foreground and the background allowing only really the sign to be noticed properly which is where the eye is drawn. I found the slanted composition to be especially interesting by how it gives the impression of an overgrown and ruined world.
I selected this image due to once again the use of the depth of field that blurs the backdrop, this along with the use of the composition allowed for maximum effect, giving the impression of a world that eventually succumbs to nature. I found that the way that the fence was composition allowed for a sense of distance to the photo, with the use of neutral space on the right being filled with industrial buildings bringing the viewer into perspective of the area it was taken in.
What I loved about this image was the clear contrast and clear colors used to create an aesthetically pleasing outcome. This is done through contrasting colours blue and white which highlight features of the building, allow for such things as the door and bolts top pop out and draw the viewer’s attention. The composition I found also was aesthetically pleasing due to how the entire image is symmetrical which in consequence created a much cleaner and pleasing look.
Within this image I found that there was obvious difference between nature and man-made structures. This is once again done through the use of a depth of field to which allows for the appearance of us peering through nature to find the man-made structures that surround everything, whilst showing how where ever nature is human activity is not far behind. I found that the gloomy colours within the image emphasised the destruction caused to the landscape by these structures and how nature and civilisation lives side by side. 
Finally I chose this image as I loved the reflection of cranes created by the aftermath of rain fall. This was partially down to how I thought it highlighted a clear contrast between nature and society, with the looming structures left behind, whilst at the same time creating a deserted and desolate feel to the overall piece. I found that the composition of the piece complimented the photo as it filled most of the negative space made by bricks, with various beams fading out of the image.
What made me choose this photo as my final image was because how to me it summed up the clear contrast between human activity and nature. This was done by the composition of the grass creating the impression of it growing around the sign as if taking back the land seized by man, to which there is a clear difference in surrounding of the backdrop consisting of machinery and metallic structures that create contrast in not only surroundings but color. The use of depth of field creates a clear definition around the sign allowing for the eye to be drawn to it immediately with both the foreground and background complimenting it due to the drastic difference in colors and blur. To me this was the image that related the most to the topic of ‘New topographic’, which not only created a feel of the contrast between man and nature, but also of the deserted spaces that surround us in our everyday lives.
I found that Svalbonas used a calm colored backdrop to her creations to balance the entire piece and really make the design pop out. In response to this I looked through previous photo-shoots picking out images of buildings that I had taken recently. Once found I proceeded onto Photoshop to cut out and stick the parts of these buildings together creating a structure similar to that of Svalbonas, to which I would continue to add a colored matt backdrop that in my opinion balanced the image out. This was my process:
From here I cut out the buildings individually and proceeded to join them together experimenting with what fitted well.
To do this I used the lasso tool to accurately outline the object wanted so that I could then paste onto the design and move it around until satisfied with its placement.
Once the design had been finished I experimented with a series of colors that I thought were neutral and would not overpower the overall piece. To do this I used the shape tool to cover the backdrop with a large square where I could then change the colors of it.
To create these images I mainly incorporated photos that I had based around the International Finance Center for my psycho-geography shoot and a few images from various other shoots. Whilst doing so I found that by duplicating the image and coloring it black while at the same time reducing the opacity, created a shadow like effect to the piece, this allowed for a 3d like effect that I wanted to put across on the piece and at the same time giving it a more graphic feel. Once done I added a green and a pink backdrop to each piece as I found that these colors drew the gaze to the piece rather than be sore from all the negative space surrounding it.
I decided to attempt at making a panoramic image by stitching together individual images I had taken of a landscape within Photoshop. To do this I overlapped picture upon picture to create a forged landscape of the area taken as seen below:
Once finished I proceeded to use this method to create a few more panoramas of the landscape in the area where I live, these were the results:
This image of the bay consisted of twelve individual images that I had to crop and re-shape to allow for the smooth transition effect between each photo that creates the impression of a singular image. 
I took this image of the golf course across the road to me by cropping the overall piece due to how some of the images did not match the shape or size of the others taken. This removed any rough edges to the image allowing for the final result.
This final image I found to be the most successful due to how the transition between each image looked the most natural with only slight lighting differences.
