From Ghosts of the Faithful Departed by David Creedon

Photographer David Creedon, of County Cork, Ireland, opened a photo exhibit in London Friday of his now-famous photos of houses abandoned there during the 1950s emigration. The images suggest why my father refused to pass on the "old country" stories of his family of 19th-century emigrants. "It's a tale of misery and woe, Sheila, best left untold."

Ghosts of the Faithful Departed is haunted by what remains in the rubble of peeling paint and paper and fallen plaster, what was left behind -- religious statues and wall art, kettles, crockery and a teapot, a pint of Paddy's, a bicycle, sewing machines, a pram, a piano....

An essay by Creedon accompanies some different images from the set at Creative Lens:

While looking at the scenes about me I felt I was awakening ghosts from my childhood past and there were times that the hair literally stood on the back of my neck. Spurred by dusty damp newspaper articles or mouldy-framed images memories came flooding back.

There's some nice background in newspaper stories on his site -- the series was "discovered" when he went to a shop to have the first ones framed, and a mention of his finding an elderly homeowner alone and in trouble in one of the houses he thought was abandoned. (He contacted social services.)

An exhibit listing indicates he'll be showing in New York at the end of this year.