Mullens, West Virginia is the epitome of America’s stereotypical coal town. The once bustling metropolis is a shell of its former self, with many of the buildings sitting abandoned, decaying further with each passing moment. Walking the streets of this shell of a city is an almost surreal experience, but things haven’t always been this way in Mullens. Let’s take a step back and see how we got here.
I really enjoy abandonment photography, though I don’t practice it nearly as much as I do landscape photography. Every once in a while, however, I like to throw my camera in the car and just drive around to see what I can find. Sometimes you come away with something and sometimes you get completely skunked, but that’s just part of the fun.
I recently did one of these drives and came away with a few locations that I thought I’d share. Enjoy!
Something I haven’t done a whole lot of is exploring and photographing abandoned buildings, an activity often referred to as urban exploring or urbex. It’s a subject that has always interested me, I just haven’t had much chance to practice it myself. As such, I jumped on board when I was invited to go explore an abandoned high school with some friends.