With smashed windows, grime-covered interiors and exteriors coated in vines – these buildings appear to come from some post-apocalyptic disaster movie.
In fact photographer Johnny Joo captured these images across modern day America in places that humans deserted many years ago.
His images show how houses, shopping malls a former US armory and even a Ferris Wheel are slowly swallowed back up by the natural world.
An abandoned amusement park in West Virginia. Photographer Johnny Joo, from Ohio, travels across America capturing images of places that are being reclaimed by nature after humans left them to rot
Overgrown Mall in Ohio, Joo’s home state. The images appear to come from some post-apocalyptic world where humans have been wiped out, but in fact all of these places can be found in modern-day America
These greenhouses, located in Ohio, were once used to tame plants for use by humans, but are now slowly being broken apart by them after the previous owners left
Joo said he used to visit the greenhouses as a child before they were abandoned, and came back often over the course of the next 10 years, enjoying the evening sun through the shattered panes
Train tracks are barely visible under a carpet of ferns and other plants at an abandoned station in New York. Joo failed a photography class at community college, but has since amassed more than 25,000 followers on Faceook
A set of steps and a chimney (top left) are virtually all that is visible of this abandoned school in North Carolina after it has been covered with vines
A graffiti-covered garage in New Orleans is reclaimed by ivy. Joo says his photography tries to capture the power of nature, but he also wants to make a point about human waste and the mess we often leave behind
An abandoned Nike Hercules Missile Site in Florida. This site, called Alpha Battery or HM-69, was built in 1964 shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis and was designed to shoot down incoming aircraft. The base was abandoned in 1979 and is now located in the middle of the Everglades National Park
One particularly haunting shot shows the inside of a misty greenhouse looking like something out of Jurassic Park.
Johnny, 27, said: ‘I think it’s incredible, and beautiful how powerful and unforgiving nature is to the structures that get left behind.
‘My favourite image is the one of the greenhouse – I’d been visiting since I was 12, I believe before it was even abandoned, and then more often between the age of 15 to 25.
‘I was able to see the changes nature was making in the space, and how it was taking over so quickly. Trees grew up through the glass. It was peaceful there, and I loved to spend evenings there enjoying the sun.
‘The asylum was one of the largest places I had ever explored – over 20 buildings abandoned and being taken over by nature just like that one. It was something incredible to experience. I spent well over 12 hours there.
‘I really like how much it shows nature’s strength to regrow, reclaim and live on even through all that we are doing to it.’
An abandoned house in Ohio. Joo said his love of deserted places started when he was 16 on a trip with his family. While passing a ruined building his asked them to stop so he could look inside, and has been exploring ever since
An abandoned home in Ohio. For Joo, abandoned places are exciting because they are like a puzzle and he enjoys trying to work out what the lives of the people who lived there were like from the objects they left behind
An abandoned home in Ohio is swallowed by vines. While Joo refuses to divulge the secrets of how he gets into these places, he admitted he’s had a few run-ins with the police during his travels
A set of curtains hang from a smashed window at an abandoned home in Ohio. Among the more notable properties that Joo has visited is Mike Tyson’s abandoned mansion, though he had to obtain a special permit to step foot on the grounds
Joo said the most impressive place he has ever visited was this asylum in Maryland. There were 20 buildings on site including this one, and he stayed for more than 12 hours in order to explore it
A deserted factory in Ohio. It takes years for plants to reclaim buildings once people have left, and here ivy has only begun climbing the walls of this former industrial facility
![A former US armory is reclaimed by nature in Ohio. As well as being inspired by locations, Joo said he is inspired by other artists, specifically Salvador Dali. 'I see these abandoned places and think of [him],' he said](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/02/21/19/496E4CE300000578-5417103-A_former_US_armory_is_reclaimed_by_nature_in_Ohio_As_well_as_bei-a-8_1519241081732.jpg)
A former US armory is reclaimed by nature in Ohio. As well as being inspired by locations, Joo said he is inspired by other artists, specifically Salvador Dali. ‘I see these abandoned places and think of [him],’ he said