Timeless Walls

A visual exploration of romantic ruins in Germany and Scotland.

About Timeless Walls


I’ve always had a strong interest in cultural history, especially related to how our ancestors sheltered themselves. It’s not surprising that one of my favorite adventures–when the opportunity presents itself–is exploring old castles and other old architectural relics.

The romanticism that cloaks these old spaces fascinates me. I’m fascinated by the ways ancient people, not unlike you and I, were able to take and shape the Earth’s natural materials to build the structures they needed to survive and thrive, and in ways that those structures have survived for hundreds of years. What fascinates my imagination is how those people must have lived, worked, worshipped, fought, and even died in the spaces they created. When I see old architectural remnants I see the people who occupied them more than I see stone, metal, or wood. The experience for me becomes timeless.

I photographed the earliest scene in “Timeless Walls” in 1980 and the most recent image in the portfolio in 2003. This collection evolved over a long stretch of time — not unlike the scenes themselves. Years after taking the final photograph, I decided these images told stories that deserved telling, and the result is this collection.

The subjects themselves all lie in Europe. Their remains today range from weathered, lonely ruins perched high on a hilltop to extravagant “tourist sites” that even today remain centerpieces of a town’s culture and celebration.

Among these treasures, my personal favorites were the seemingly unkempt ruins, having lost their roofs hundreds of years ago, even the interior spaces of these magnificent structures now enjoy an abundance of natural light; light that the occupants themselves surely never saw. And with the light comes shadow created by a diverse universe of forms and shapes that always takes my mind on an inquisitive adventure. Remove any one of these elements, and the stories these images tell wouldn’t exist.

Imagine your own stories within these Timeless Walls