Nichols is a self-styled urban explorer, venturing to abandoned structures ranging from malls to churches to funeral homes to view and often photograph the space. He doesn’t break into locked sites and actually encourages others not to do so.

Urban exploration participants explore the abandoned or forgotten sites in cities and towns to learn more about the history and culture of a place, as well as uncover hidden stories.

Nichols’ work, including concert and model-based photography, is available to view on instagram @undrgrndlostfiles.

When did you start photography?

Since 2010. I started off messing around on an iPod Touch, and then eventually I started getting into it and bought my first camera. A couple years later I bought a better one, and now, just recently, I bought a mirrorless camera. I’ve always liked doing photography. I always liked old buildings and architectures, so I started watching YouTube videos of people doing (urban exploration), so that’s how I got into it. When I tried it about four or five years ago, I just got addicted and never stopped.

How do you decide where to go?

I have a lot of pins on my phone that I save. It’s a lot of researching and digging because you have to look for certain places, sites are may be demolished or up for sale.Probably the coolest was a hospital in Chicago that I went to that actually had tumors left behind and monkey brains, because it was an animal human research facility. We got in there before it got all messed up so I got all the clean shots. The most creepy was probably an abandoned funeral home. It actually had caskets still in there.

What do you feel when your enter a site?

I feel nervous sometimes. You never know what you’re gonna expect. I’ve never run into anybody face to face. I feel confident, though, most of the time. I’m nervous because sometimes when you walk on something, you don’t know if it’s going to fall through. You can tell, but you’re never going to know if the wood is rotten. I’m afraid of that.

Where do you find sites?

I went to the gym and the bowling alley and a couple of churches in Racine. Recently, I’ve been to the old building that’s right across from Public Craft. It was the old JCPenney. I recently had permission to take pictures in Wilson School from Kenosha Unied because they closed down, so I got to go on the last day and got to take pictures of the school, so that was pretty cool. You mostly have to go to Milwaukee or Chicago or Indiana. That’s mostly where I go.

How far do you travel?

A couple of weeks ago, my buddy and I went to Indianapolis to an abandoned water park called Thunder Island. It’s in the woods and that was pretty cool. The only things that were left behind were the cement water slides from back in the day.

What don’t people know?

It’s really risky. We don’t post addresses or anything like that because we don’t want kids or people destroying the locations because that’s how a lot of stuff gets locked up and then other explorers can’t go see it. I don’t really take people with me. I only take people I’m close with. I don’t want to take strangers because then they’re going to tell everybody.

What’s your favorite part?

I like being able to see stuff that you can never see. To me, it’s just beautiful inside seeing decaying buildings.