Abandoned Places: A house becomes a shrine for its forgotten owners

ROLLER-SKATES, books and crockery litter the floors of long-forgotten rooms in this eerie abandoned home

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Photographer Johnny Joo has spent years exploring abandoned places across America

In Ohio, this house acts as a shrine to its forgotten occupants, every piece of furniture and discarded belonging providing the briefest snapshot into the lives it once held.

Over the course of 2015, photographer Johnny Joo spent many days exploring the country home, which has been abandoned since 2000.

This deserted home was abandoned in the year 2000

Johnny said: “I wouldn't say exploring abandoned places gets creepy. I find peace within the abandonment.

“I spent days upon days within this home, just sitting and reading through family books, letters, notes.

The country home is full of furniture, old pianos and discarded notebooks

“It was so quiet - so peaceful. I was told the story of a family who were no longer there to tell it themselves, instead I learned it through the place where they once lived.”

Every room remains untouched, as if the family left without a second thought for the history that they were leaving in their wake.

Joo photographed the house on several days throughout 2015

A hand painted sewing machine, notebooks and scrap books are among the belongings discarded by the family.

The photographer spent days camped out in the house reading what was left behind

Photographer Johnny Joo’s obsession with abandoned places began when he was just 16-years- old, and he has not stopped searching for uninhabited places since.

The 26-year-old said: “Simply put, it's really the adventure that draws me to abandoned places - being able to piece together a puzzle of a past life.

Despite not knowing the previous occupants, Johnny felt the house told their story for them

“It's always so heartbreaking seeing what becomes of a person's entire life when nobody is left to care.

“I have a huge interest in our history - even these seemingly insignificant countryside homes play such an important part as pieces in our massive puzzle of human life.

Each room is full of old belongings clearly left behind in a hurry by the previous owners

“Hundreds or thousands of years from now people will want to know what life was like now, and not only will they be able to learn, but they will be able to see how so much of our society shifted from our original ideals.”

The 26-year-old finds each abandoned place he visits equally beautiful, because they all have their own story

After spending a decade exploring abandoned places across America, it would be easy to assume that the empty rooms and discarded furniture start to blend into one, but Choo finds solace in each and every one.

He said: “With each place being so vastly different in not only the scenery, but the story, I feel that I can find solace within the darkness of these abandoned places.