An abandoned house in the St. Claude neighborhood of New Orleans. (Seph Lawless)

Photographer has captured eerie, haunting images of abandoned America—from to decaying . Recently, he visited New Orleans, Louisiana to document the city's abandoned structures, 10 years after Hurricane Katrina, , struck the city. Lawless turned his lens to schools, restaurants, apartment complexes, an amusement park, and even a factory, all left to rot.

As he photographed the abandoned spaces of New Orleans, many flooded during the hurricane a decade ago, he met many residents now living among the ruins. Ten-year-old twins Donovan and Devon (pictured in the slideshow above), born just days after Hurricane Katrina, play near abandoned houses. One man takes shelter in one "abandoned house that has a huge hole in the side of it from where a tree rammed into the house after flood waters devastated the area," said Lawless.

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And while the city is dotted with the ruins of a storm that significantly changed New Orleans, Lawless cites what he calls shots of "the stairs that lead to nowhere" as some of the "saddest" images he has captured. The "stairs" are concrete steps which would have led up to porches, all that remains of houses once standing. They are scattered all over the city that still bears scars from Katrina. "[Some of the steps] sit right next to the [new] homes being built," said Lawless.

For more on Lawless' work, visit his or follow him on , and on .