Abandoned in America: Photographer Nyla James Explores Forgotten Places

This broken-down house looks as though someone beat it up with a baseball bat, photographer Nyla James says. | Photo: Nyla James.

Nyla James finds beauty in abandoned places. Camera in hand, she seeks out forgotten farmhouses, deserted churches and vacant motels, peering past broken windows, slipping through dim doorways and padding up crumbling staircases draped with ragged wallpaper and dusted with dry leaves.

The Arroyo Grande photographer likes to imagine what life was once like in those now-forlorn spots. Can you imagine Mom calling the kids in to sit around the table? she asked. This was someones home. It had a lot of love in it at one time.

James shares some of her discoveries in her exhibition Abandoned in America, April 1 through May 1 at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. Its one of two shows being presented this spring in conjunction with the Central Coast Photographic Society; the juried group show Up Close & Personal, which features macro photography, runs May 6 through 29.

Board member BeJae Blake said the Central Coast Photographic Society selected James after seeing her Abandoned in America photos on display at the Santa Maria Public Library in May 2015.

Shes an outstanding photographer, Blake said, praising Jamess carefully composed shots and her unusual subject matter. Shes also showing things that we havent seen [before].

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James has been exploring the world through her lens since age 16, when her mother bought her a Kodak Instamatic 124 camera. The Morro Bay High School graduate has honed her craft at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo and Brooks Institute in Ventura.

Ive always loved photography, said James, who is the president of the San Luis Obispo Camera Club and recently finished her fourth term as president of the Santa Maria Camera Club. I eat, think, breathe it. Everywhere I go I see pictures in my head.

Her fascination with photography coincides with an interest in architecture.

James spent much of her childhood in the coastal community of Los Osos exploring construction sites in the company of her father, a builder and general contractor. He was building houses down the road from my school, she recalled. I'd stop on my way home from school and hang out with him until it was time for him to get off of work.

When she wasnt climbing the rafters of a half-finished home, James would sneak into abandoned buildings with her younger brother and sister and build forts.

The photographer experiences a similar thrill of discovery whenever she stumbles upon a shambling shack or desolate schoolhouse. I got back to being a little kid searching for secret hiding places, she said. Its the excitement. Its a little bit of a risk. Its really fun.

Nyla James got down low to take this dramatic photograph of a decrepit farmhouse. | Photo: Nyla James.

Over the past five or six years, James has dedicated herself to documenting the dilapidated places she encounters on road trips around the country. Her quest has taken her to such out-of-the-way spots as Yeso, N.M., a former trading post turned ghost town, and the pastoral Palouse region encompassing parts of southeastern Washington and north central Idaho.

James is most attracted to abandoned houses, in part because they represent the human urge for comfort, safety and love. Theres no place like home, right? she asked with a wry smile.

She has this love affair with going on a road shes never been on before and has absolutely no idea what shes going to find, said Ruta Saliklis, exhibition and development director at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. She gets out [there] and finds these beautiful compositions.

I never take these trips to find this stuff but it's always in the back of my mind. I can't help it. We drive down the road and I go, Oh, you've got to stop. There's something awesome, said James, whose boyfriend, photographer Bob Ginn, serves as her chauffeur and navigator. Bob is awesome. He'll just turn around and go back.

The empty stairway of an abandoned school beckons. | Photo: Nyla James.

Ginn is more reluctant to step inside those sites, however, while James insists on exploring every corner. Hers, she acknowledged, can be a dangerous pursuit.

She could cut her skin on a shard of broken glass, bang her head on a low-hanging doorway, tread on a rusty nail. One false step, and a seemingly stable floor could buckle beneath her feet.

Ive actually walked up stairs on the outside [edge] thinking, Well, its probably safer to walk on the edge than in the center, the photographer said with a laugh. I dont know if it works or not. But mentally it makes me feel better. (So far, she added, shes yet to fall through any floors.)

But the risks are worth it for James. And the results speak for themselves.

Once, she and Ginn chanced on an abandoned church in a tiny settlement just as they ran out of gasoline. Unable to find a gas station and running on fumes, they tracked down a friendly U.S. Forest Service ranger who gave them five gallons from his own pump.

Nyla James couldnt resist stopping to snap shots of this deserted church. | Photo: Nyla James.

But before they left town, they returned to the church so James could snap some photos in the glow of the setting sun. Those black-and-white images reveal an empty sanctuary awaiting a phantom congregation: clapboard walls covered with peeling paint, pointed arched windows open to the elements and a peaked, shingled roof topped with a bell-less steeple.

The pair found Yeso by accident as well. We were driving on the road and I said, What was that? It looked like a pile of rocks, James recalled.

When they stopped, they discovered an entire settlement of ruined stone structures. That was a lot of work for people who put their whole lives and their hearts and all their dreams into building th

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/abandoned-places-photography-nyla-...
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