The Rural Landscape

By Steve Huff

In 2009 and 2010 I photographed a ton of abandoned houses, factories and rural scenes in Illinois and Missouri. Using a Leica M8 or M9, I sometimes drove 200 miles in a day searching for interesting subjects for this series, and the ones you see below are my favorites. I plan on continuing as it is an ongoing project. Enjoy.

The 1st image of the house below was shot with an M9 2 year prior to the one below it which was shot with the M 240

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38 Comments

  1. Your work is amazing and your reviews keep me coming back. I am wondering what percentage of this portfolio is shot with your Leica gear? The images are just stunning.

  2. The birds crossing the road…. Incredible photograph. Don’t stop shooting landscapes!!!!
    Ross Tetrault

  3. Gonzalo said it well. I too FEEL these places. You are able to capture the essence of the scene. Great work.

  4. Hi Steve, This is the type of shooting I’d like to do with my new Olympus EM10; which lens would you pick for that camera to handle this type of photography please?

  5. Wow impressive rural shots! I live in Rural Heyworth Illinois and I’m always driving around looking for old abandoned buildings. i’ll have to share one to your inspiration page.

  6. Love this gallery of mostly forgotten memories. There are so many ghosts in these photos of people who lived and loved here. Those who built memories carried with them throughout their. And now the memories are gone. The laughter and tears faded away as the birthplace of memories slows fades itself. And, here are captured the forgotten memories we can never know.

  7. I guess call me sucker, but I have a tendency to see the beauty in the old houses. What they still could be. Keep up the good work.

  8. I feel to do landscapes a person usually likes solitude.
    Not so much a people person, more an introspective.

    You a people person Steve .. that’s why you Seal photos are marvellous.

    • Since you set up a blog with replies I was expecting you to be a little more interactive rather just having folks say “WOW!”

      • Im interactive when I need to be. I reply to about 200+ e-mails a day. Every day. I do not have time to reply to the hundreds of comments that may come in throughout a day as well. Just not possible to do it all as I am a one man operation. With that said, I thank everyone who comes here and I appreciate all of the comments. This site and the comments are for the community to use to discuss, debate and share. It’s not all about ME but about EVERYONE who comes here.

  9. Steve,
    I love these photos. I returned to college to obtain my degree in photography and also have my own business. I love your work.

  10. Oh my god. Mate, I just died looking at some of these. Just first few blew me away, the square building with stairss, and the shot with the flock of birds mid flight.

    Crazy “nutty” stuff!

  11. I can honestly say that these are all great shots! I really appreciate not only your reviews, but your eye.

  12. some cracking shots there steve but I think I would have chosen a better way of displaying them, maybe side to side viewer so that each is displayed on its own

    • Thanks Tyler. I am kind of limited with this blog layout but may search for a plug in that can display them side by side as I agree with you 100%. Thanks!

      • Hi Steve,
        Check out this slide show plugin. http://wpgallery.tribulant.net/ I use it in a webpage for a club web (htttp://www.mipc.org.au) with the same theme as you have. For a lot of photos I use Adobe Lightroom with flash and supply a link. By the way amazing shots and great web page. I have to send your link to my Leica fan friend.

  13. Steve, I’ve never commented here before, but I find the third photo down to be masterful. The symmetry and composition, along with the coloring, just blows me away!

  14. I like your shots Steve. I specially like Home sweet home, number 7. Can I ask you something? How do you process to get those borders to stand out like that? I’ve tried to get B&W like those but I can’t. I’ve tried with some filters to overlay the black borders over the color but it does not look good. Can I kown how you do it?
    Thanks! 🙂

    • …something else, I love the metallic look of that picture, that is what I want to learn how to do. Is it curves?
      Thanks again!

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