Chris Luckhardt
Instagram: @chrisluckhardt
Chris Luckhardt is a Canadian photographer who has spent the last 20+ years travelling the world to capture stunning images of abandoned places and unique architecture. His photos and videos and videos have gone viral on social media and been featured in mainstream news outlets worldwide.
Chris is known for his high-risk and dangerous adventures exploring abandoned places. Some of his most well-known works include documenting the abandoned Soviet space shuttles, Japan's abandoned island city Hashima Island, and the decommissioned Adak navy base.
A highlight of Chris's career was being invited by Obama's administration to photograph a private Halloween event in The White House. A select list of interviews and collaborations includes Inside Edition, Netflix, New York Post, Yahoo Japan, GQ China, Good Morning America, and Ford.
Chris is based in Toronto and shares his expertise by hosting photography and social media workshops.
Chris Luckhardt
📹: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epi3U...
1980s nostalgia was the theme of my Alaska abandoned exploration trip! Back to the Future is one of my favourite movies, so I planned to see this "abandoned" DeLorean up close when I returned from Adak Island and its abandoned military base and McDonald's.
This DeLorean is an early 1981 production model before they re-designed the coolant layout. Its history and how it ended up in this location is a unique story. I learned the car was owned by a retired high-ranking US army officer. He passed in 2004, and the DeLorean has sat in this spot since that time. According to reports, his widow refuses to sell the car despite offers of $30,000 and higher!
I took the first photo with a Minolta XD11 on Kodak Gold 200 film. All other photos are digital.
1 year ago | [YT] | 33
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Chris Luckhardt
📹: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ahH...
I explored Detroit's abandoned train station, Michigan Central Station, several times before 2014. The link above is to my Vault Series video that I filmed while exploring the station way back in 2008!
Ford announced June 6th as the reopening date – 36 years after the station closed and became abandoned.
Nostalgic camcorder footage is a hot topic recently, so please enjoy this footage that I filmed on a (new at the time) Canon HV20.
All these photos are from 2010, with the last photo taken during Ford's open house in 2018. Ford gave me a media pass and I had rare full access to the top floor.
1 year ago | [YT] | 23
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Chris Luckhardt
MrBeast just released an episode featuring Kupari in Croatia, the location of my channel's first video! Here's what the 5 abandoned hotels looked like in 2017.
Also noteworthy is that Kupari is a very easy place to explore. MrBeast makes it look like an extreme challenge but tourists use the beach every day. Local police prefer people stay out of the buildings, but such is the life of an explorer!
1 year ago | [YT] | 9
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Chris Luckhardt
Did you know there's an abandoned McDonald's on a remote Alaskan island? 🍔🍟
Its drive-thru menu is frozen in time – still displaying 1994 prices and menu items, and promos for Bobby's World and the first Jurassic Park film! My video tour (link below) was featured this week by the New York Post and other major news outlets.
🎥 → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njpPd...
Adak Island was home to a US Navy base for more than 50 years, and housed 6000 military personnel and civilians at its peak in the late 1980s. The island is further west than Russia's easternmost point! This McDonald's was opened by a franchisee in the summer of 1986 with assistance from the Navy. It thrived for 7 years, typically being filled all hours of the day. But the restaurant closed in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the US began decommissioning bases. McDonald's corporate sent a crew to Adak in late 1994 to retrieve the arches that stood by the main road.
According to the franchisee's son in a series of Twitter/X posts, the family left Adak and moved to Oregon to open two other McDonald's restaurants. Adak's McDonald's was shuttered for more than a decade but its interior remained in perfect condition. It was used as a lunch facility by a local fish processing plant from 2011-13 but was shuttered again when the company went bankrupt.
The restaurant was boarded up shortly before the pandemic due to vandalism by ten junior Coast Guardsmen. They were punished for damaging Adak's closed church, abandoned houses, and front windows of the shuttered McDonald's.
1 year ago | [YT] | 36
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Chris Luckhardt
🎡 → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58u-2...
My video returning to explore the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans after a decade just passed 10,000 views. Please have a look and leave a comment letting me (and the world) know what you think about the famous abandoned theme park!
I'm also sharing more photos and bonus clips on my Instagram: www.instagram.com/chrisluckhardt/
1 year ago | [YT] | 31
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Chris Luckhardt
Pompeii is the famous ancient ruins city in southern Italy. The city was destroyed and completely covered in by the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Everything in these photos was buried under volcanic ash!
Pompeii was rediscovered 1500 years later and many subsequent excavations occured. My early childhood interest in ruins and abandoned places could fairly be credited to learning the story of Pompeii from my father.
Today, the ruins are a major tourist attraction and UNESCO World Heritage Site. I had a chance to visit Pompeii during the offseason, but the site was packed with tourists and made photography challenging. I decided to hang around until closing time (5pm) to take these photos without tourists.
But I suddenly realized it was 5:01pm and nobody was around. I had the entire closed city to myself and began filming an "exploration" video of the ruins. Accidental infiltration? I saw no cameras or security until I returned to the locked gates after sunset. Getting out of Pompeii is a story for another day...
My other YouTube channel features the walking tour. Link is below!
📹: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1CFe...
1 year ago | [YT] | 11
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Chris Luckhardt
🎢 → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58u-2...
Here's another set of decade-long before and after photos from the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans theme park. The first light-painting photo is from an amazing night of exploration in June 2011. The 2nd photo is from my return when the overgrown park looked more like Jurassic Park than a Six Flags!
Watch the full video linked above!
1 year ago | [YT] | 8
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Chris Luckhardt
🍦 → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58u-2...
Here are two more 11-year before and after photos from the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans theme park. The first photo is from June 2011 and the second photo is from my return exploration 11 years later. The ice cream cones couldn't last the decade!
For photography enthusiasts: I took both photos at night, using long exposures to capture star trails and flowing clouds. The 2011 photo was 6 minutes at ISO 100 and the 2022 photo was 3 minutes at ISO 200. I used the same workhorse 16-35mm lens for both photos.
Watch the full video linked above!
1 year ago | [YT] | 13
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Chris Luckhardt
🎢 → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58u-2...
What a difference a decade can make! I took the first photo in 2011 in the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans theme park. The second photo is from my return exploration 11 years later. Nature takes over!
For the photography enthusiasts: I took both photos at night, using long exposures to capture star trails and flowing clouds. The 2011 photo was 6.5 minutes (ISO 100) and the 2022 photo was 10 seconds (ISO 1600).
Watch the full video linked above!
1 year ago | [YT] | 18
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Chris Luckhardt
✈️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5aVv...
Let's take another look at the abandoned Boeing 747s and some of their smaller friends. I took these photos during a return trip under an incredible Christmas morning sunrise sky!
Some of the planes have been there for over 20 years, but the glow of the sunrise illuminated each plane's wonderfully designed curves and faded colours.
The video linked above is from that return trip. Enjoy!
1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 101
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