Mike Dijital: The King of Urban Exploration Photography

UrBex Guru Mike Dijital Sheds Some Light on Urban Exploration

If you troll the highs and lows of the internet long enough, eventually you'll come across the likes of Mike Dijital or at the very least his stunning photography. He lists his occupation as 'photographer and trespasser' but that's much too vague a definition of what he does. Married with cats, Mr. Dijital has an impressive collection of images and video clips available for viewing on his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/mikedijital) as well as a book, tentatively titled "Abandoned", in the works. I was more than a little thrilled when he accepted my invitation for an interview; to be able to pick his brain and tap into places that have long since vanished. I went into this hoping to get a better understand of his view of "urbex" and came away from it with much more than I expected.

Thankfully he was more than accommodating; my wireless internet connection seemed to have a mind of its own so it wasn't a one shot deal. His passion of exploring is only exceeded by his deep desire to capture images of such places; his creation of "DegGi5" makes that blisteringly evident. Though I haven't been able to view this site as it is a private forum, when he speaks about it, you can tell that his words come from the heart. What are Mike's hopes for urban exploration? Initially his reply to my query left me puzzled but the more I dwelled on it, the more it made sense. Basically, he wants it to 'go away', not permanently, just until the fires die down and the smoke clears. That's one of the reasons why his Urbex website is private, the less people seeing what's going on, the better.