New Work: Left Behind

On April 23, 2010, my brother, Warren Bates, chased a train, pulled in front of it and took his life in the ghost town of Bagdad, California. 

He left me and many others behind... devastated, in shock, and asking why.  

Warren loved the desert and during the last decade of his life he drove over 100,000 miles photographing abandoned, lonely, places- mostly at night.  

I had the idea years ago to visit the places my brother went and capture them as they are now, in daylight. 

Like his death, he only left clues as to where these places were.  

He had digitilized a lot of his work and I was able to figure out where some of the places were by the title he gave to the photo. Sometimes he would put the name of the town in the title. Other photos had generic names like "Pink Truck". I was also able to find some places by searching for the names on the signs in the photos. But many more have no information, and will remain a mystery.  

Each set of images in this gallery starts with his, followed by mine. 

The first images in the gallery are exact places that he visited. The second half are images that I could not find but are similar in subject matter, feeling or spirit. The final set of images are of Bagdad, where he left everything behind... 

To view as a slideshow, click on the first image. Captions can be seen by clicking on the "show more" button.