Abandoned doctor's house & surgery, Belgium

Sunday 14 September 2014





A little while back, I ventured over to Belgium for a road trip to photograph abandoned buildings with my boyfriend, who specialises in photographing abandoned places. On the second day, our first stop was a house which used to belong to a doctor, and had a little surgery attached to it. The whole place was abandoned with equipment, medicines, food, and personal possessions - it's been open for years, but there's still a huge amount of stuff left inside. There's even a huge old X-ray machine in the surgery still, plus a few old bone saws and measuring equipment. The doctor seemed to have expensive taste: he was quite a collector of wines, and had a cellar full of old bottles; large cigars littered his desk. The bedroom, though, was a little severe, with a bible by the bed and a cross over the top. He also had a decent taxidermy collection, including a the pheasant above and a badger that belonged on Bad Taxidermy (there was also a fox at one point, but someone took that!). There was also a huge amount of old personal photographs, which made me a little sad considering they were all left behind. One photograph sat on the mantelpiece - a candid shot of two dogs waiting eagerly the other side of a back door. I turned around and realised I was looking at the door in the photograph, and it reminded me that the battered abandoned house was once full of life, lived in by someone who for some reason left it all behind. It's an experience I've not had quite so clearly before, and was definitely one of my favourite places we shot in our brief trip.