Realm of beautiful decay

 

 

 

Frozen in time: Sprawling Neverland ranch Jackson turned into a private amusement park is crumbling and deserted five years after singer's death From outside the gates of Neverland Ranch it appears as if Michael Jackson's former home and fantasyland has been frozen in time. The backyard circus is long gone, but heartfelt notes placed by saddened fans at the property's entrance remain intact five years after Jackson's death. And visitors are still making the pilgrimage. 'I figured it would just be a closed gate, but I still wanted to see it for myself,' James Chen, who traveled from Seattle to see the ranch with his father, said. +20 Tributes: Flowers and messages are left at the gates of Neverland in 2009. Fans still flock to the ranch five years after Michael Jackson's death +20 Frozen: The sprawling ranch where Jackson had a theme park built is empty and abandoned +20 Retreat: Jackson, pictured greeting children at his home in 2004, left it in 2005 after a high-profile case accused him of molesting boys there While many Jackson ventures are thriving after his death, including a new album and Cirque du Soleil shows, there's not been similar movement at Neverland, despite rumors that the property could be transformed into a Graceland-like homage or sold to the highest bidder. Caroline Luz, spokeswomen for Colony Capital LLC, the real estate firm that bailed Jackson out after he defaulted on the $24.5 million he owed on Neverland, said that the Santa Ynez Valley property about 150 miles north of Los Angeles is being maintained, but she declined further comment. The estate was built in 1981 by developer William Bone, who called it Sycamore Valley Ranch. Jackson paid $19.5 million for the hilly, oak- and sycamore-studded property in 1988 and rechristened it Neverland after Peter Pan's island dwelling. He soon added such over-the-top amenities as a zoo and small amusement park. For nearly 20 years, Neverland was both Jackson's home and a pop culture landmark.   +20 Memories: Tributes and photos of the King of Pop are hung from a lantern at the gates +20 Hey day: The railway station at Neverland. Jackson paid $19.5 million for the ranch in 1988 and named it after Peter Pan's world +20 Abandoned: The theme-park and home has been deserted for nearly ten years. To the left is an ice cream cart given to Jackson by Elizabeth Taylor +20 Style: While he was living at the ranch, Jackson filled its grounds with statues of children at play It is where Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky in a lavish 1991 ceremony; where Oprah Winfrey famously interviewed Jackson live in front of 90 million viewers in 1993; and where then-wife Lisa Marie Presley and Jackson welcomed children from around the globe before the United Nations' 50th anniversary in 1995. Jackson later turned his back on Neverland after his 2005 acquittal on charges that he molested children at the ranch. He opted to live elsewhere in the world until his death in 2009. 'I guess they ruined it for my dad,' Jackson's eldest son, Prince, told a civil court jury last year. With no crush of fans or media throngs in years, and the amusement park just a whirling memory, Neverland's future remains unclear. +20 Grand: The 2,600-acre property had neat lawns, fountains and sculptures scattered across the grounds +20 Hide out: The room where Jackson stored his most valuable possessions was hidden behind a walk-in closet +20 Vacant: A bedroom, lined with shelves that lead to a mural, has been cleared of all furniture +20 Grand: The rooms may have been cleared, but the chandeliers and polished floors hint at the lavish style the King of Pop brought to his home During a recent stop outside the property, a landscaper could be seen zipping along the driveway in a red buggy as a guard manned the security shack at the front gate. The wireless router inside was named SVR Security, a nod to the property's original name. 'It has been really quiet,' said real estate broker William Etling, whose office is a few miles away in the wine-tasting town of Los Olivos. 'There hasn't been any noise about stuff happening out there. I'm surprised they haven't sold it to someone else already.' Etling, author of the Santa Ynez Valley tell-all Sideways in Neverland, wondered who the buyer of the $35 million, 2,600-acre property might be when a nearby 3,250-acre ranch recently sold for $22 million. His only guess: Someone who really likes the King of Pop. +20 Retreat: A sculpture of children outside the main entrance. Jackson's son, Prince, says allegations made against his father ruined the property for him +20 Splash out: The bathtub in the main house had views across the grounds of Neverland +20 Care takers: A few members of staff were kept on to maintain the property +20 Child's play: A spiral staircase is a central feature of the railway station Jackson had built +20 Center piece: The main house on the property was a French style building with a brook, right, leading up to it +20 Entertainer: Jackson, with then-wife Lisa Marie Presley, is surrounded by children during a UN celebration in 1995 +20 No place like home: An aerial view of the ranch in March last year shows the floral sign spelling out its name +20 Vast: An aerial photo of the Neverland estate shows off its pools, lakes and rambling pathways +20 Closed: The ranch is deserted but fans still travel to its gates to pay homage to the singer who died in 2009

Realm of beautiful decay: Haunting photos of abandoned mansions, shuttered asylums and deserted amusement parks where time stands still Dutch photographer Niki Feijen has criss-crossed the world looking for crumbling beauty lurking beneath a thick layer of dust inside long-forgotten buildings. Feijen, who made headlines last year with his first self-published book of photographs titled Disciple of Decay, is now preparing to unveil to the world his latest project titled Frozen. The new book, which is being released next month at the Berliner Liste art fair, features 184 pages of stunning interiors of abandoned mansions, mental institutions and churches from around the world. +21 Exploring decay: Dutch photographer Niki Feijen has traversed the world looking for crumbling beauty lurking beneath a thick layer of dust inside private bedrooms and public buildings +21 Globe-trotter: For years, the Dutchman has been traveling the world looking for boarded up buildings +21 Sequel: Feijen is now preparing to unveil to the world his latest project titled Frozen as a follow-up on his self-published book Disciple of Decay +21 +21 Hallowed ground: Feijen has always been interested in religious spaces, such as deserted chapels and small churches that haven't been in use in years +21 Time lapse: This image shows what appears to be a deserted old movie theater with rows of folded chairs still in place +21 Phantom music: The keys on this dusty old piano clearly have not been touched for many years The most poignant and unnerving images in the series depict rooms that look as if their inhabitants had just left, with pillows thrown carelessly on the bed and bath towels still hanging from a railing over a tub. Besides derelict old mansions ravaged by time and debris-strewn hallways, Feijen documented some more unusual spaces for his second book. One image shows what appears to be a deserted old movie theater with rows of folded chairs still in place and vegetation peeking through open windows. Another image shows an old roller coaster covered in a thick layer of grime in an abandoned amusement park, where the photographer also stumbled upon a water slide overflowering with plants and draining into a chipped blue-tile pool filled with standing rain water. Feijen has made a name for himself in the art world as photographer specializing in Urban Exploration, or Urbex. +21 Delusions of grandeur: This colonnaded ball room decked out in marble looks like it could be the site of a grand reception, if it weren't for the gaping hole in the roof +21 Just push play: The feeling one gets from looking at Feijen's images is that someone had pressed the pause button on life +21 Sacred spaces: Feijen's ideal shooting locations are ghost towns, insane asylums, dilapidated churches and castles frozen in time +21 +21 Journey into the past: Looking at these image, one cannot help but think that the owners of these personal items have just stepped out for a minute and will be right back +21 Water world: In his travels, Feijen has come upon this abandoned water park with a slide draining into an empty pool overgrown with vegetation +21 Ghosts of the past: A water park that was once crowded with happy children and parents has been reconquered by nature +21 Last stop: This roller coaster covered in a thick layer of grime has not heard children's terrified and joyful squeals in many years For years, the Dutchman has been traveling the globe looking for boarded up buildings, decrepit chapels and family homes where everything is still in place. In Frozen, one particularly unsettling and thought-provoking image shows dusty old jackets and a woman's black leather purse hanging from hooks in a foyer, and a pair of dirty slippers left next to a rusty bicycle. The feeling one gets from looking at Feijen’s images is that someone had pressed the pause button on life.  His ideal shooting locations are ghost towns, long-shuttered insane asylums, dilapidated hotels and castles frozen in time and looking like at any moment their rightful owners will walk through the door and reclaim their personal space. +21 Crumbling beauty: Even though Feijen's interiors are being eaten away by time itself, much architectural and aesthetic beauty remains +21 Bleak: Some of the shooting locations look especially gloomy, like this images of what appears to be a deserted jail or a mental institution +21 Eerie: This vast bedroom still bears the marks of its previous inhabitants, with white pillows resting on the two single beds joint together +21 Cavernous: This dizzying image shows a view from the top overlooking multiple flights of concrete stairs +21 Worse for wear: Time has not been kind to this humble hotel room where everything is covered in moss and debris +21 Attention to detail: In this badly damaged bathroom towels are still hanging from a railing over a tub While some of the interiors in Feijen’s photos have retained an air of grandeur, like the airy colonnaded ballroom adorned with marble, everything in sight has been touched by decay. In 2010, Feijen ventured into the ultimate deserted location, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the Ukraine where time stopped in 1986 after a deadly nuclear accident that resulted in a rapid mass evacuation.