The haunting beauty of New Orleans’ abandoned buildings

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By Sarah Sekula, published on CNN.com

Meet Leland Kent. He is slightly obsessed with rust and decay, peeling paint and piles of debris. He’s OK breathing in musty air and unusual smells, crawling through mud, squeezing through fences and hoisting himself over barbed wire.

All in the name of art.

He’s what you call an urban explorer. Part historian and part artist, he spends much of his time photographing New Orleans’ long-forgotten buildings.

“Most people are amazed at what I photograph,” says Kent, creator of abandonedsoutheast.com. “They are intrigued by the decay and what objects are left behind.”

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