This Photographer Shows Us What America Looks Like Without People

Can you imagine what America would look like without inhabitants? Of course, we’ve already seen that many times in post-apocaliptic movies – and it’s both beautiful and strange. However, those are only special effects created on the computer.

American photographer and traveller Noel Kerns spent years travelling around the US in the search of a perfect shot. During his journey, he managed to take photos of various palces with no people around, during night time or at sunrise. Later on, Kerns admitted that some of the deserted places he photographed were not allowing visitor access; but he didn’t get into any trouble during his photo sessions.

However, Kerns’ passion for deserted places started a long time ago, when he was just 13 years old. As he explains in his book Nightwatch: Painting with Light, the photographer was fascinated by a threshold he discovered as a teenaged. The interior of the building was filled with the former family’s remnants, which made entering the place feel like a time travel experience.

This is also one of the reasons why many moonlight photographs taken by Kerns include deserted motels dating back to the ’50s or the ’60s. Many of the places he photographed were burned down or destroyed afterwards, which makes that scenery even more surreal. All of the lightning you see in the photos were manually created by Kerns using flashlights.