Friday, February 25, 2011

Motels (III) The Most Haunted Places in America

Holbrook, AZ
Holbrook, AZ (Wigwam Motel II)

Motel, KY
Knob Hill, KY

Motel
Conway, TX

Little Rock, AR
Little Rock, AR

This is a selection of images from my on-going series about Motels (The Most Haunted Places in America).

When I'm traveling I like staying in cheap motels. There's something about them which captures my imagination. I love the atmosphere, the dated and crumbling decor, the buzzing neon signs, the musty smell of the rooms and the people that use them. I love to listen to the stories of those that work in the office. I love the plastic dusty flower displays, stale coffee, the old TV's and faded pictures hanging on the walls. I love the cracked cement parking lots, the broken coke machines and the Bible in the bedside draw with the broken back. What I love most of all are the dreams I have in the bumpy uncomfortable beds after a day of driving. Laying in the darkness listening to the trucks thundering past on the road outside I think about all the people who have stayed in the very room I am in. I imagine all the things that could have possibly happened and feel the fleeting ghosts of their presence echo around me. In the darkness I contemplate my own flickering sepia place in it's transitory history. For me they are the most haunting and haunted places in America.

Please follow these links to see more images from this series:

5 comments:

  1. I like the photos that you took and I wonder where that motel is located. I also love the article that you write about motels. Very interesting.

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  2. Thank You for the photos. I appreciated your post regarding with this Most Haunted Places in America.
    Motels in Santa Ana

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  3. Thank you for your comments 'Motels in Santa Ana'. All these photographs are from different motels scattered around the USA. Re, your other comment in a previous post on this subject. You're probably right that there can be a lot of crime in these cheap motels and a few times that I have arrived at one I have encountered either a police presence in the form of an arrest being made or a questioning. I have also witnessed criminal activity such as drug dealing and prostitution in these places. This is only part of the reason why I consider them haunted though. My article is intended to take a more 'romantic' view - from that of a traveling outsider, rather than that of possible supernatural experiences, though I certainly believe I have encountered them.

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