Dennis Minner often wanders into old places most of us would rather ignore. Eye sores he sees through a different lens.
"I always like to call it second chance photography. Being able to capture an image in a place that people thought was horrifying on the outside but to be able to let someone be able to see it and say oh my gosh that's so beautiful!"
It's how he pictured himself when he first picked up a camera more than 10 years ago.
"I was in the middle of a really really bad divorce. To kind of just fill my time and kind of give me therapy I just started shooting these old abandoned buildings," he explains.
He didn't study photography in college, he's a marketing guy who just started snapping pictures.
"I start posting the photos and friends started saying man you're an artist and I'm like I'm not an artist, I'm a business guy."
His images consistently prove otherwise and although he's sold hundreds of them, he hasn't quit his day job.
"To me it's not just photography it's art and I'm afraid I would start going into these buildings saying what can I take a picture of that would sell and instead now I take pictures because I truly have a meaning and a story behind every photo that I take," Minner explains.
He's traveled the country and captured torn and tattered objects in about 20 states.
"This is a church in Chicago."
But each print is framed in an old window from St. Louis.
"I don't do anything to these except clean them off."
They are photographs of forgotten places, a colorful reminder of what was.
"It's never the intent for these pictures to look depressing or to look sad, it's to remind people that no matter what happens there's always a second chance. There's always a possibility to improve yourself."
https://minnerphotography.com/
Instagram & Facebook
Schlafly Art Outside Festival
Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood
Friday, Saturdy & Sunday
http://www.schlafly.com/events/artoutside/
