I received a few inquiries about going out for an Urbex session during the COVID-19 pandemic confinement.
In order to spare your time, let me start with the conclusion:
DON’T BE A MORRON.
DON’T DO IT.
I am addressing this issue, as I’ve heard that these are maybe “the best of times” to go out Urbexing.
I understand the argument. Trust me.
After all, many places worthy of an urbex exploration have been deserted, and security around them is lax, to say the least.
I’ll admit I was briefly very tempted. Then I tought about it some more.
While it is true there are possible great opportunities, there are a few other issues at play here…
The first one is that Covid-19 is extremely contagious.
The virus’ capacity to be easily transmitted is the reason why people are asked to practice social distancing (stay at least 6 feet away from others).
Yet, one of the primal rule of safe Urbexing is to be accompanied by a buddy, in case of trouble (see here, for more Urbex safety tips). That buddy might be required to help you climb a wall, help prevent a fall, or he might need to push you out of the path of a moving object. These things are difficult to accomplish from six feet away.
In other words, one of the primary directive of a safe urbex outing directly contradicts one the primary Covid-19 isolation requirement.
Another issue is that, as we previously talked at length, Urbex is a inherently dangerous activity, which could lead to a slip, a fall, or any other sort of physical mishap. If one of those were to happen, you would then require medical assistance, depriving others of the use of an ambulance, a doctor’s time, and even, perhaps, a hospital room.
Not a great idea at a time when medical resources are overstretched by a global pandemic.
So is Urbex a no-no for a while ? Not quite.
As a matter of fact, over the next few days, I’ll talk about a few urbex activities you can do while being in isolation at home.
Those include scouting new destinations on google map, working on your post-production skills (isolation works great with photoshop) or simply optimizing urbex specific physical preparedness (tractions anyone ?).
Stay safe everyone. At home.
The Urbex Sentinel 
I totally agree. Urbex sites will always be pretty dead anyway, so there’s no need to take any extra risks now. At the moment, I’m limiting my photography practice to occasionally cycling (exercise and fresh air as a bonus, made easy as roads are quiet) with my camera in a rucksack and only taking quick snaps on the way. Proper exploration will have to wait.
Like