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Industrial Minimalist: Photographer captures the abstract beauty of industrial estates

One summer, Bradford-based photographer Stuart Allen was walking his dogs when he decided to cut through a local industrial estate to the fields beyond. As he was passing a row of units, he couldn't help but notice the sunlight hitting the facade, with its shutters and doors firmly closed to protect against unwanted intruders. His eye was drawn to the bright colours, straight lines and shapes. And so he returned with his camera to take cropped shots of the buildings, realising that they almost looked like abstract paintings.

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Bright green horizontal corrugated shutters with a striking red vertical stripe and black shadow down the centre, creating a minimalist abstract composition

Stuart explains: "This seemed to be contradictory to the mood of the estate at the time, which was typically drab, visually uninspiring and, being a Sunday morning, rather subdued and quite eerie. This was the start of my Industrial Minimalism project, an attempt to show that the most unlikely of subjects can be inspiring.

"I am no stranger to urban minimalism; having reviewed my photo collection recently, the earliest example I could find is from 1982. However, at that time it was more opportunistic. However, since the start of this project I now make a concerted effort wherever possible to drive or walk through industrial estates, wherever I am in the world. Indeed, I could be classed as an industrial estate tourist."

If you love this style of minimalist photography, follow Stuart's latest work at www.stu-artphoto.com.

Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of Stuart Allen

Corrugated metal shutter with horizontal lines in blue and dark grey, interrupted by a bright yellow horizontal stripe across the centre
White-framed window with six black panes set into a bright turquoise corrugated metal wall
Red-framed industrial unit with black shutters set against a backdrop of bold black and white vertical stripes
Bright yellow industrial building facade with horizontal stripes in the upper half and a grid pattern of closed shutters below
Bright blue corrugated metal shutter with horizontal ridges, adjacent to a solid blue wall with a red vertical stripe dividing them
White ventilation grille with horizontal louvres mounted on corrugated metal wall crossed by two red horizontal lines
Corrugated metal facade with alternating vertical sections in pale yellow and blue-grey, divided by two horizontal red lines
Bright turquoise industrial shutter facade with repeating horizontal slats and a darker vertical dividing line running down the centre
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