Maison Le Grand George was already a well-visited location when we arrived. Many photographers had visited the abandoned Flemish cottage. Inside, that was easy to see.
Almost no piece of furniture or decoration was still in a believable place. Even teacups had been put on a chair. Why would you do that?
That is precisely why I hardly visit former homes any more when their locations are shared everywhere on forums and social media. Arranging scenes, usually called staging, seems to be becoming ever more normal. For me, that removes what makes an abandoned house interesting.
“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” is a familiar rule in urbex. For some photo hunters, it seems mainly to be a nice caption for their photographs.
A coat hangs beside the window and the furniture is still there, but parts of the ceiling are coming loose. The house consequently feels both familiar and uninhabitable. That image is strong enough without rearranging objects. My objection to staging is not a preference for a particular composition. It is that the next photographer then encounters a scene created by someone else.
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