Keith Dotson
PHOTOSNACK #766
I regularly contact photographers previously featured on PHOTOSNACK and ask them to send me their spontaneous thoughts, observations, reflections, or advice.
Today, I am sharing the message I received from Keith Dotson.
Keith Dotson
A great day of photography helps me get into a state of flow, where other cares and distractions fall away, and my mind can be completely immersed in the moment.
I began as a landscape photographer because I liked hiking, being in nature, and I was interested in conservation and ecology. I still love the landscape as a subject, but over time, pure landscape photographs morphed into photographs of the abandoned places that can often be found in small towns and along the backroads of America.
Shooting abandoned places brings a whole new atmosphere to the images. The eerie mood of these forlorn places transmits through the lens. These locations are -- by their very nature -- a little spooky. As an introverted person, I enjoy the isolation and loneliness of these places. I like the silence, although I’m often started by buzzards flying out of an open window or through a hole in the roof. Pieces of bent metal sometimes squeak or rattle as they shift in the breeze. Occasionally I can almost feel the presence of the people who once occupied the spaces.
I photograph the buildings in their environmental setting, while also looking for textures and details to help tell their complete visual story. I look for faded wall ads, old furniture, broken glass, rusty nails, and the ever-present musty smell of abandoned buildings.
Of course, abandoned buildings have histories. People lived or worked there. People may have made love there or had arguments there. Children may have been born there and someone may have even died there. While many of these stories are eternally lost, some of the histories can be discovered, and learning and re-telling these histories has become a big part of my work.
I often receive messages letting me know that a building I have photographed has been demolished. Many important structures have been lost, including part of the ghost town at Union Level, Virginia, and the historic E.F. Young Jr. Hotel in Meridian, Mississippi, and many others.
By unrelentingly and consistently chasing these decaying places for the past decade, I have gained a reputation for my abandoned places work. Not only have I published my own books of abandoned places photography, I’ve had two images published by the great American documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in his 2022 book, “Our America: A Photographic History.” I was invited to join Welsh comedian and TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones to photograph abandoned places in the Mississippi Delta for his TV travel show that was broadcast in the UK and Australia in 2025.
I enjoy being on location making the photographs. It’s fun post-processing them into black and white. And I especially love printing the final images. Of course, I make and sell archival inkjet prints, but I also have a small darkroom and lately I’ve been learning the platinum-palladium process. I enjoy the idea that a photographic print of a place may still exist hundreds of years after the structure itself has gone back to the earth.
Keith Dotson was featured in PHOTOSNACK #748.
Through Sunday Editions, I occasionally connect you with photographers whose work you previously explored through PHOTOSNACK.
I want to reveal some authentic parts of the people behind the cameras. I don't ask them any specific questions. I ask them to share whatever comes to mind when they think about YOU, the newsletter readers. It makes their responses genuine and personal.
Until next time,
Tomasz
Beautiful and melancholy!
Interesting to read about Keith’s fascination with abandoned buildings and places (“ghost towns”). Intimations of mortality? Memento mori? Something profound and disquieting in all that for sure.
Thanks for this one, Tomasz.