AYE is a Yorkshire photographer exploring old and forgotten buildings in many forms – from interiors and architecture, to rooftops and the hidden and unseen.

A Brief History

What started out as two mates who wiled their Sunday’s away over a few pints, turned into a hobby that took us all over the country and even into Europe. A chance photograph through the window of our local abandoned church sparked an interest that still hasn’t waned 6 years on.
After many years of climbing through open windows at the crack of Dawn, Aaron emigrated to New Zealand with his young family and I was left with a decision of whether to carry on or find something a little safer to do….. Hmmm.

The AY page was set up initially to stick some photos on for ourselves just as a little journal. We would never have guessed that within weeks it was running into the thousands! At one point we thought that FB’s algorithms had gone haywire and we couldn’t understand why it was going viral. Now I can. It seems there’s something universally interesting about this subject and it can range from a childhood memory of the place, a love of history, old architecture, the photography art side or just the spirit of adventure, but most people seem to be able to identify with the theme in one way or another.

After Aaron left I was asked to do an exhibition for Left Bank Leeds. Most of the work was taken out of my hands and the curator, Courtney, did a fantastic job of picking the imagery and basically running the whole show. Since then I have had many offers to do documentaries, artwork for cafes and other exhibitions and we will have to see what time allows me to achieve, but for now I’m still happy to go and seek out that building with the perfect light seeping in through the windows, lighting up the colours of decay inside, and showing the photos off to the public