If you read HuffPost Travel at all, you know that we have a teeny, tiny obsession will all things abandoned.
The laundry list of places we've covered includes theme parks (Connecticut's Holy Land, Berlin's Spreepark, Beijing's Wonderland, Rio's Terra Encantada); sights (Mexico's abandoned "Eiffel Tower, the mines in Leadville, Colorado, asylums in New England, an entire town in Spain), a Catskills institution (Grossinger's Resort), a NASA structure (which sits abandoned in Bermuda), not to mention ghost towns and an assortment of other abandoned spots around the world.
Philadelphia-based photographer Matthew Christopher started visiting abandoned sites around the country roughly a decade ago. Of his passion for the subject, he told the Daily Mail, "I want to be able to convey the respect, appreciation and awe that I have for the locations I visit. Trying to tell someone about a place conveys so little compared to being able to show it to them." He added, "My favorite part of exploring ruins is that to me, it is peaceful. I can focus on what I am seeing and experiencing rather than being wrapped up in my thoughts all the time...Discovering new or intriguing places, finding something you know not many people have seen, or managing to get permission to somewhere you'd really like to see are also a lot of fun."
Christopher has now focused on photographing the remains of this country's infrastructure, hotels and churches, among other subjects.
Check out some of the haunting images of a former church, elderly care center and jail below.
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