Marina Bare, Photographer and World Explorer/RFP Staff
♦ Part II of the Photographic Grand Tour of the Empire Hotel–The Fabulous Queen of Salisbury, N.C.’s South Main Badlands.
Marina Bare, photojournalist and world explorer plunges fearlessly into the darker reaches of Salisbury’s most famous flophouse unopened to the public since its shuttering in 1963. Here Marina’s lens captures the hidden grandeur of an architectural masterpiece in abscess. Opened in 1855, the Empire once served visiting dignitaries, General Robert E. Lee Commander of the Armies of Northern Virginia, Otto Wood “The Robin Hood of the Piedmont”, and the actress Sarah Bernhardt. From the looks of it they may have used the plumbing.
A Living Colony of Coliform Bacteria Breeds in an Upper Room:
An Large Norway Rat Skulked along the Wall and Vanished in the Darkness at the End of the Hallway:
Broken Plumbing Hinted that Human Forms Once Hunkered Down Here:
Why has this Magnificent Structure Gone Uninhabited Since 1963? Do THEY Desire Silence? We don’t Profess to be Mind Readers:
Movement Behind the Walls:
A Sense of Unwelcoming:
Why are These Walls Pressuring Me?
The Room Brought to Mind a Passage from “Phantasms of the Living”:
The Empire Hotel asks: “What Do THEY Want?” Is there a Protocol We Fail to Understand?
