What is Ordinary Haunting?

Ordinary Haunting is an ongoing photographic study of places that were built to be occupied but are briefly empty.

•    Schools before students arrive.
•    Parking lots before commuters.
•    Churches before congregations.
•    Storefronts before customers.
•    Places waiting to become themselves.

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Nothing here is abandoned.
Nothing is staged.
Nothing has happened.

That is the point.

The project is interested in the quiet tension between a place's intended purpose and the brief moments when that purpose is suspended.
 
What belongs here?

A photograph belongs in Ordinary Haunting if it creates the feeling that someone should be present...
       ...but isn't.

The subject is rarely architecture itself.

The subject is anticipation.
 
What doesn't belong?

Not every photograph made before sunrise belongs here.

The project avoids images whose primary purpose is:
•    dramatic weather 
•    beautiful sunsets or sunrises 
•    wildlife 
•    landscapes 
•    street photography 
•    portraits 
•    urban decay for its own sake 
•    horror imagery 
•    abandoned buildings as spectacle 

Those are different conversations.
 
Rules

The rules are intentionally simple.
•    Photograph ordinary places.
•    Gas stations.
•    Schools.
•    Strip malls.
•    Churches.
•    Parking lots.
•    Office buildings.
•    Community centers.
•    Fast food restaurants.
•    Places most people pass without noticing.

Photograph them outside their intended hours.
•    The project exists in transition.
•    Before opening.
•    After closing.
•    Early morning.
•    Late evening.
•    Moments when the building seems to be waiting.

Nothing is staged.
•    No props.
•    No actors.
•    No artificial atmosphere.
 

The world already provides enough.

Respect the place.
•    Nothing is entered illegally.
•    Nothing is moved.
•    Nothing is damaged.
•    The camera is a visitor.

Let the light exist.
•    Artificial light is part of the subject.
•    Streetlights.
•    Exit signs.
•    Security lighting.
•    Hallway fluorescents.
•    Neon.

The project does not try to overpower existing light.
It studies it.
 
Silence matters.

The photographs should feel quiet.

If a frame relies on spectacle, shock, or obvious drama, it probably belongs somewhere else.
 
The Field Journal

Every outing is documented.
The journal records where I went, what I noticed, what succeeded, what failed, and what I hope to revisit.
It is a notebook rather than a portfolio.
 
The Gallery

The Gallery contains finished photographs organized by recurring themes instead of by date.
The project grows over time.
The categories remain.
 
A final note

There are no ghosts here.

Only buildings doing exactly what they were built to do, at times when almost nobody is watching.
The haunting comes from us.

We are accustomed to seeing these places full of people. Remove the people, leave the lights on, and something changes. The familiar becomes strangely distant. A hallway becomes a corridor. A storefront becomes a stage. A school becomes a collection of doors waiting for Monday morning.

That quiet transformation is what this project is about.