ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Alex Ramos is using his drone skills to bring attention to historic, but forgotten, buildings in Upstate New York.

Ramos piloted his drone above the Walters Building, an infirmary built 90 years ago near Highland Park in Rochester. The bars went on the windows because so many people tried to escape.

“Here we go,” said Alex Ramos as his drone lifted up into the air Thursday afternoon. I found him on South Avenue in Rochester between Westfall Road and Elmwood Avenue.

He also shot footage of the abandoned Jackson Sanatorium in the hills of Dansville. The video reminds the viewer of a scene from a thriller movie.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Was it spooky to be down there?”
Alex Ramos, drone artist: “Yeah.”
Brean: “What was it like? Tell me.”
Ramos: “It had a very eerie feeling to it just knowing the history. Just being on that hill, surrounded by a forest, it just had that feeling to it.”

Other locations Ramos has captured (and posted on Instagram @alex_ramos73) include the Chestnut Place house built by John Barber near Letchworth State Park; part of the Willard Treatment Center along Seneca Lake; and the abandoned Rochester Incinerator Plant on the Genesee River, abandoned in the 1990s. It cooked trash rather than buried it.

Ramos went to Wayne Central School and Niagara University, and earned a master’s degree in England, then coming home to start his videography/

In addition to the abandoned sites, Ramos also shoots modern events. His drone video of the recent eclipse shows the darkness and light coming over Innovative Field like a wave.

Brean: “I call you an artist.”
Ramos: “Thank you.”
Brean: “What do you hope your work inspires?”
Ramos: “I really hope it can shine a light on these abandoned properties to show the history of Rochester. A lot of people, myself included, are guilty of that where you drive by these places and don’t think much of them. And now when I drive by these places I’m like — what’s the history behind it? I want to be here, I want to take footage of it and then hopefully maybe local leaders can see it, maybe try to redevelop it and make the city a better place.”

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