Decoding the Origins of the Backrooms Photo

[@farrellmcguire]

I know it’s been found guys, video’s coming soon

[@djmargoo]

I love your videos they are so high quality!!

[@thecactuarking]

Omg I just finished watching this video then saw this comment. I need to know!!

[@redspeakable6108]

Wait as in the last week the backrooms image hunting community solved the mystery or theirs another even better lead that you are gona explain on KZbin?

[@RANING_HADEZ15]

@@djmargoo real

[@Spacemarioedition]

THERES NO FRICKIN WAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

[@halberdli431]

One also need to consider the circumstance when the photo was taken. A furniture store or any place would never be that empty unless it's newly built, around rennovation, or about to be sold/rent out/demolished after it's closed or moved out. Ther is a chance this is the last photo of this place.

[@Dargonhuman]

Even if it's not the "last" photo, you're still correct that the space has likely drastically changed in the 6 years since it was uploaded. I can think of several commercial spaces in my small town that are unrecognizable from 6 years ago.

[@bogwife7942]

that would explain the framing/angle of the photo, imo. the angle and quality looks to me less like a professional real estate photo and more like someone was the last one in a building and thought it looked eerie, so they snapped a quick photo

[@classicalplayz4296]

@@bogwife7942has anybody tracked down the person that uploaded the picture to 4chan like it’s been years and nobody has come forward to say it was them. I’m sure they are aware on how it has became popular especially since everyone is on their phones nowadays and social media.

[@bugjams]

Right, we'll likely never _literally_ find the Backrooms photo in real life, because it has been renovated/demolished by this point. We can only ever hope to find photos/ads of the original store. Our only real hope at this point is if the person who thinks they know they location decided to go public about it, or someone else figures it out and does the same.

[@OurSpaceshipEarth]

Looks like a renovator or Mall construction crew from outside LA or an area for hairy skin flicks throwing up certain sets. Seems to be an approval or proof of work image - which some over worked mgr or marketer put out when asked for imagery involving the uh concept w/e it may have been. Looks like a good jam spot for an 80s warehouse rave or squat club. weird better. No grease always BIG plus..

[@reedwilliams1868]

I looked at this image so long I don't get the uncanny feeling at all anymore. I can't imagine it as an endless sprawl of hallways anymore, it's just a furniture store.

[@jupieterr]

That's probably how people originally saw the pic, before it got turned into the spooky backrooms meme lol

[@MsPoopdragon]

It never really felt uncanny to me at all, most 'liminal spaces' just don't seem to work all that well on me personally. Its too easy for my brain to just go "Oh that just a school basement or a final picture someone took who was moving out of a house". I get FAR more creeped out by uncanny faces and people

[@nyancat8828]

I never felt uncomfortable with it personally. It always felt warm and cozy to me probably due to the colour(?)

[@Kade-c0gh4]

​@@nyancat8828 same!

[@taylor22222222]

@@jupieterr I've always seen the photo this way.. and I never could get into any of the backrooms stories without complete boredom. It's just a bland photo to me, maybe a little photoshop to make it appear more bleak idk. But at the same time, God help me if I stumble across a photo of an ocean on Google Earth, or just zooming in on any satellite images--it's a living nightmare, I just can't.

[@goldfishkaden1539]

my great grandpa ran the biggest furniture store in austin texas for a few years and he told me that the wall paper could tell the story and that there is no way this building still exists in the same way it did. He changed the floor plan (including walls) over 20 times in the 40 years he ran the business

[@luismedina5792]

so pretty much the internet is wasting time trying to find an already destroyed place.

[@kittx3392]

My thoughts exactly, finding the models of wallpapers (likely all were made at the same year, and bought from same store/factory) would lead to narrowing down the area, and timeline of which that place was decorated with them.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

Which furniture store?

[@victoriafelix5932]

@@kittx3392 That's what I recommend as well, since there may well be sample books that would help narrow that search. Also, if it's suspected that there was an earlier business at a given location, it may assist to hunt down any relevant libraries that would hold onto older phone directories, maybe even relevant archives (eg. in the state of New South Wales, Australia, the State Library of New South Wales & the Sydney City Archives). Even talking with reference librarians about strategies for constructing searches might help, given their need to know what types of reference sources -- or professional bodies, such as the Wallcoverings Association -- that may be or that are out there.

[@satrynexe]

@@user-vi4xy1jw7e probably best not to mention, as that would reveal a lot of easily googled personal info

[@arsonistnpc]

when you color-corrected the photo it kinda broke my mind. like, of course the original space probably wasn't that yellow, of course it was probably just a jank camera setting- realistically, what building would choose a shade of yellow like that to put on *everything*? just a detail i never really thought about lol edit: also the people in the replies talking abt lighting and color and etc i love you, i'm an artist and i LOVE talking/learning about this kinda stuff

[@softestsoap]

when i first saw the backrooms photo way back when, i didn't even process the yellow color because my brain automatically ignores the bad white-balance that's common on older digital photos. always thought it was funny that people obsessed over the color

[@LikaLaruku]

All of my old phone cameras from the early 2000s used to add a disgusting yellow or sepia hue to the off-white walls in my house.

[@borntoclimb7116]

Same here

[@TheZeroNeonix]

Well, if the person posting the photo was using the original photo, were they intentionally distorting the colors?

[@bogwife7942]

as a janky camera connoisseur, my theory is that they had it on 'flower' or 'sunset' mode, or any equivalent mode that bumped up the saturation all to hell. i miss when cameras were shit and came preloaded with a million different stupid photo modes :')

[@3dssolidsnake]

The furniture store theory is probably the most likely one, Radio Shack and other electronics stores would set rooms up for customers to get an idea of what an entertainment system might look and sound like in their homes. Something I noticed when you brightened the room picture up is that there was possibly sunlight coming in from windows in the cubicle areas.

[@JL-vv7rf]

As soon as he explained that furniture store theory I immediately said “oooooh that would make sense” I thought about the office space too but then back to when he was talking about it being a furniture store, I thought about my trip to mattress firm and agreed that would be the best lead to this mystery.

[@subfuscous987]

i think there are windows on the right for sure

[@thecianinator]

yes fam I wrote a whole essay on how there are totally (probably) windows there in another comment. Furniture stores always had big windows on the front of the building like that, which would also mean that the backrooms are actually literally the frontrooms

[@billkeithchannel]

The lack of outlets in the inner walls fits with a fake living room display where the lamps rarely work.

[@KagatoAsuka]

Its a church daycare.

[@Broogli]

I just want it to be known that I explicitly said to “not follow/contact any leads mentioned in the video.” And I also said numerous times that “this is just speculation” But I know that viewers sometimes don’t listen to those things, and I take responsibility for any misconduct on their/my part. At the end of the day, I made the video after talking with people who originally found it, (I was kept in the loop since the beginning of the investigationG) and pointed me towards it (before we knew it wasn’t the og picture) and that methodology of “trying to be the first” sadly comes with drawbacks of also “being the first WRONG person” But I am 100% responsible for that, and I apologize for it. At the end of the day, we all love liminal spaces (some more than others) and things like this are very exciting in the fandom… sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. This time I was wrong.

[@Druboon]

its ok we forgive you

[@smutnaryba4937]

We need an apology video

[@servvo]

how dare you

[@Broogli]

@@servvo they threw me in the Stoney lonesome for my actions :(

[@commandercaleb_]

Ur all good man.

[@batteryacid1]

that thumbnail is genius

[@smutnaryba4937]

thx

[@megs4193]

Exactly! 😃👍🦘🇦🇺🐨💞.

[@bdinh3130]

Ok, I'll finally admit it. I am the backrooms photo guys. It was me all along.

[@worldsstrongestgamer4033]

Bro people have been like looking for you

[@FileNotFound404]

👍

[@saintbrush4398]

Yeah, well, you're going to have to pay for all the content farms that took your likeness.

[@stickad_]

nvm i just realised its a joke

[@bitrare7]

Holy moly!

[@spddiesel]

Kinda specific, but I'd look at furniture stores opened post WWII in towns of 50K people or less (with stagnant or declining population) that went out of business in 2008-10. If it's in a northern location like Canada, then it could've been closed longer as the cold would inhibit mold growth. I'm actually guessing this place closed in the mid-late 90's and was barely hanging on for the last decade, and the photo was taken sometime in the mid oughts.

[@aliasfakename5551]

A lot of Canada is very humid during the summer, plus melting snow soaks everything. It's only snowy here for 4-5 months a year, we definitely get a lot of mold.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

There may also be a local newspaper article about some long-running business going under.

[@red.aries1444]

I also think this furniture shop would more likely located in a smaller village, but I think it must have been closed at latest in the 80th. The wallpaper looks more like something from the late 60th to the early 70th. If the furniture has been still successful in the late 70th - why we don't see some of these bold wallpaper patterns from this area? In the 80th and 90th the patterns of wallpapers nearly vanished completely. On the left side we can see the glimpe of something of an all green wallpaper. It wasn't so uncommon to have one wall in such a color in the early 70th. But not later. Maybe the shop has been owned by older more conservative people who didn't want to spent money on a more fashionable decoration. Maybe the owner retired and no descision could be made what to do with the building. If the building still has been heated no mold would have been accumulated. It's even possible that some of the furnitures would still have been standing there. Maybe the situation changed in the late 90th after the owner died or the heirs came to the conclusion to sell the building, cleaned it for a last time and took some pictures with a digital camera. Someone 10/15 years later bought this camera , old computer equipment or just an old diskette with this picture and uploaded the picture because he thought it looks cool and creepy. There's maybe a lot of search for the original location inside a special online community, but this doesn't mean that there's a connection to the real world. Whoever took the original photo might already be dead. Former customers of this furniture store are already dead too or have forgotten the location, as they have seen it always only decorated. And there is not necessarily a connection between people who might remember this location and the people which do this online researches for the location.

[@spddiesel]

Update: so it's been found. The picture was taken in 2002 as a before shot of a business remodel job. Turns out it was an old furniture store in Oshkosh, WI (pop 67K) that went out of business in 1994 and was being updated 20 some years ago🤘

[@PanAndScanBuddy]

​@@spddieselPretty close!

[@Sir_Bone-Head]

I love when popular images turn out to have even more mystery behind them then what they get used for, kind of like Jeff the Killer. The furniture store lead is pretty interesting, and I remember Broogli's video, though I do remember someone leaving a comment to leave the company alone since they want to be known for their business, not some internet photo.

[@sinisterisrandom8537]

And their comment is gonna be ignored. Cause if they were smart->they would market off te fact that their location might just end up being that exact location it was taken a one time. =more business potentially could end up selling more furniture as well. Though it would be a tad stressful given many traveling to it.

[@kreideprintz]

This photo and the Jeff the killer photo are the ones I've tried to keep up with over the years. The furniture store lead makes a lot of sense and for Jeff the killer I'm pretty sure some people already agree that it's a photo of a little girl that was distorted and edited by some internet trolls. It's fascinating to see so many people come together and try to find the source of something, it really establishes a sense of community and sometimes the reality behind these pictures is better than the fiction we came up with

[@xoeleox2079]

The Slenderman movie came 10 years too late to be relevant and was written by people that did not understand the premise at a fundamental level. The Backrooms movie is being made while the idea is still relevant and in cooperation with one of, if not the, best creator associated with it. The equivalent would be if the Marble Hornets team worked with a studio to make a Slenderman movie just after the last season finished . . . oh wait . . .

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

OH NOOO... NOOOOOOO... A24 presents: "God Help You: A Backrooms Story"

[@worldcomicsreview354]

Didn't they make a Ted the Caver movie that was just a generic jumpscare fest? I remember the story blowing up the first time, and somebody then came up with the ideal ending for the movie - the guys roping down into the cave one last time, shot in almost silohuette, as they descend from the light to the dark, never to return. Bang, perfect.

[@lucyinchat]

And were listened to.

[@effyiew7318]

I lost all hope in Kane with the a24 collab. A24 is like the midas of shit. Everything they touch turns to garbage. The backrooms movies were great as long as Kane did what he wanted. Now he's been cucked.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

I didn't even know they made a Slenderman movie until just now

[@captainweekend5276]

Finally! Someone who actually understands the 4chan unix code filename. It annoys me how much argument there is over this matter, it's like people would believe just about anything other than the image coming from 4chan, as well as people from reddit and other sites who just don't understand 4chan at all and almost seem scared to refer to the site by name. The idea of the backrooms image going as far back as 2012 makes sense, to me and a lot of the other people who first learned of the backrooms through 4chan there's two things that are basically consensus, first being that the backrooms copypasta predates 2018 by a few years at least, and the second being that the original copypasta never made mention of any monsters, the horror was meant to come from the fact that you were completely alone. The last line was a later addition and just so happened to be the version that picked up popularity on other sites, I remember the backrooms copypasta from at least around 2016 if not earlier. Also about the "Mark Donovan" reddit post, that in my opinion is almost certainly a troll post. Mark Donovan is the name of a character from a popular UK sitcom "The Inbetweeners", and the character of Mark is a bully to one of the nerdier main characters, so it seems like a tongue-in-cheek name to use as an alias. Could just be a funny coincidence but to me it points towards it being a troll.

[@becklarkin]

i feel like it's a mistake to search current furniture stores. the picture is obviously of a closed store cleared of furniture, or a renovation, which means the walls have likely been torn down.

[@jameschin1046]

Your right

[@Cola2013_1]

Its prob Ashley store, maybe.

[@scottjs5207]

Probably right on that. It was either an urban explorer, or someone selling the property who took it, seeing how all the lights are working. (I used an mostly vacant office building for an event once and only a handful of lights were left functioning). The chances of it being demolished or renovated by now are pretty high.

[@under6075]

it's probably impossible to tell which furniture store the photo was taken in and even if the walls wallpaper power outlet rectangular lights and everything else was still around the room would probably look a lot different at the very least

[@becklarkin]

@@under6075 true, the only possible method i can really see working is tracking down the person who took the photo.

[@mjdxp5688]

I used to be apart of the Backrooms image search as well a few years ago. I remember that someone in a Discord server I was in proposed trying to find out what type of wallpaper is used in the image. It's a pretty specific pattern, so if a match could be found, it'd likely help to narrow down the time period that the building was built in. Edit: I'm happy to say that it's been finally found after years of searching! Turns out someone found it five years ago and made a Twitter post that nobody found up until recently. Funnily enough, it's not a furniture store, but a hobby store!

[@retroryan838]

Exactly. If people spent more time researching the wallpaper patterns, we could have more leads. I don’t know why many people don’t realize that.

[@red.aries1444]

The wallpaper pattern looks like something from the late 60th to early 70th. My parents home has been built in 1970 and I have some pictures from this time that show wallpapers with similar style. The very bold big sometimes psychedelic patterns often seen from the 70th are more from the midst or late 70th. In the 80th wallpapers became more subtle and were more about structure instead of color patterns. Since the 90th wallpaper patterns nearly vanished at all or developed into vintage or romantic style. The problem with searching for such old wallpaper pattern is, that an online search is more ore less useless, as the internet is flooded with "wallpapers" for your monitor, or you only find pictures from highly polished interior designed rooms from the 60th or 70th, in which they don't use such more or less boring wallpapers. You can't find a lot of ordinary family pictures from this time taken indoors, as you needed to have a flashlight, which was expensive. You can look at movies from the 60/70th to look for such wallpapers but mostly set designers would prefer more interesting patterns or no patters at all for the background. If you really want to find such wallpaper designs you need to go to the archive of a design museum, and go through old sample catalogues.

[@reginaldmapplethorpe8866]

I don't know if they discuss it on the forums I'm surprised you didn't mention it. That store is a Macy's imo. They had the wall paper exactly like that and a lot of free space behind the departments that were normally empty. They would also move around the dressing rooms periodically to a different section of the store/department. That's why they have the bumper rails on the bottom they're for the clothes carts.

[@thecianinator]

pics?

[@BoundlessSamurai]

I've always thought that those wooden bumper rails were trunking/conduit tubing

[@memesthatmakeyouwannadie3133]

That would make sense. They have furniture showrooms as well. They had locations close around 2018. That or, again, a Sears with a furniture showroom that closed around that time.

[@mrj3217]

Having been in jail the florescent lights never go off and that's like torture. Guards will put them on full blast as punishment and when they aren't bad guards will keep them as low as allowed and trust me the tension of the guards and the inmates felt just by the non-stop lighting. To this day I am suffering PTSD like symptoms with those kinds of lights. I feel great unease and tension and just feel bad with those kind of florescent lights. So to be stuck in a place like this would be non-stop terror/fear.

[@scott7305]

A lot of schools have those types of lights, and I believe you really can’t dim them at all

[@LikaLaruku]

Used to work at an office building with humming florecent lights. Big boss man blessed us one day by replacing them with quiet LEDs. Suddenly everyone stopped getting headaches & eyestrain.

[@lukea.6298]

You can but it requires special ballasts and dimmers

[@segamai]

Since none of the previous three assholes said it, I’m so sorry that that happened to you. I hope those guards rot in hell and that you find peace.

[@BlurryNova]

Thats the only kind of light we have at my workplace. Cant dim em. One of them right at my work station is headache inducing bright. Not even the bathrooms are free from this kind of lighting. Dont even have windows to save us 😫

[@TheKillerMoth]

The fact that this video only has 1k views is INSANE. Like genuinely, this is such a well edited video.

[@bluorb]

welll, it got 7.4k more views in 3 hours 🤷‍♂

[@Dargonhuman]

It was only posted 11 hours before you made that comment. Give it time to cook, dude.

[@xanderplayz3446]

38k!

[@melohavoc]

57k

[@evankim2406]

115k!

[@SicMetalMaggot4life]

The thing I will say about the Sears theory is that I don’t exactly think people are referring to the actual backrooms storage area of Sears or the main retail space. Sears was weird, in hindsight, for having a small section usually towards the back of the store that was furnished very different to the rest and had much lower ceilings in line with the Backrooms photo. I can’t recall what exactly would be back there, but it was 100% accessible/visible to the public and I believe there were some kind of services being offered in these sections like family photography or something in that vein. I also know Sears was crapping itself to death around the time of the earliest photo, so dying Sears would not be entirely impossible. Hell, when I first saw the Backrooms pic back in like 2020, my first thought was “damn, is that the back area of Sears?”.

[@houstoner]

I mentioned in my post but if you have set foot in one of the old Sears, like the ones not attached to a mall and were built in like the 50s, you would get these vibes. We had an old one in Houston, finally closed a couple years ago, but as a kid in the late 80s going to that Sears, had a very similar look. The wallpaper was a bit more colorful, but the same basic layout. And the ceilings were dropped compared to the rest of the store to give it that cozy feel. This is probably the truth, but we'll never know exactly where it came from. Probably a demolished or abandoned by now.

[@iggysdumpingground3790]

WE DID IT GENTS WE MADE IT IN THE VIDEO 25:46 on a real note this was a VERY well made video and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's been fascinating watching everything over the past month or so going on in real time in virtual's discord server so it's awesome to see it all finally be put together in one really well made and cohesive video, GOOD job 👏👏👏

[@amelialonelyfart8848]

This is very validating. My parents were furniture manufacturers growing up and so I often hung out in showrooms and furniture stores growing up. I knew EXACTLY what this room was!

[@thecianinator]

THANK YOU! I've been saying what you've said in this video (albeit just in KZbin comments on backrooms videos) for YEARS. There's only one point I'd like to cover here: The hidden wall on the right probably has windows. I'm a professional video producer, and color correction is a big part of my job. When analyzing the photo, I set the white balance off of various surfaces that could be white, and got varied results. So I decided to do it the old fashioned way and manually aligned the RGB levels based on bright spots. This gave the image the most natural coloration I could get from it, and also revealed that there seemed to be cool, blue-biased light coming from the right, just out of frame. When it comes to lighting, blue color temperature means one thing: daylight. Virtually all furniture stores like this one have big picture windows in the front wall, so passerby can look in and see all the furniture. The strong daylight balance of that light source, emanating sideways from the right of the frame and contrasting with the green tint of the overhead fluorescents, suggests windows. Which would mean, funnily enough, that the backrooms are actually the frontrooms.

[@InsightfulGear]

MY REPLY KEEPS GETTING REMOVED! UGHH! Anyways I was trying to say, share your info with the people on “this person’s DC” but it wont let me. Just skip to the end of the video and it shows the name. Last time I checked they were looking for the wallpaper in there, they may have already found it they aren’t sure

[@stuff2227]

the white balance makes sense because the outlet looked yellow in the photo when they are supposed to be white the connection to an art gallery makes sense since both art galleries and furniture stores would display a variety of things and would have similar layouts

[@recurvestickerdragon]

to be honest, I thought it was yellowed from age and UV exposure. old plastic gets gross and yellow

[@Leatherface123.]

The place was probably a local furniture store with only 1 location, and that would also explain why it’s outdated

[@unduloid]

It's nice how that picture of my apartment became so popular. Now if only I could get rid of that weird shadowy guy who keeps stealing beer from my fridge.

[@ElectricoGamez]

So YOU were the photo guy...

[@MostlyPonies1]

It would blow everyone's mind if someone posted an updated backrooms photo on r/malelivingspace and it was the exact same but with IKEA furniture, a white gaming desk, and a little potted plant.

[@dennislangley44]

That was me mb

[@googoofeesmithersmits4536]

@@MostlyPonies1 and also had literally no knowledge of anything about backrooms, that would make it even funnier

[@LikaLaruku]

I concur. I was positive last year that it was an 80s office space or perhaps an art gallery, but when I was shopping for some recliners a few months ago, I realized that without furnature, places like Moore & Lazy Boy were like a backrooms Gmod map.

[@thisisanexonym]

I feel like finding the origins of the backrooms photo would be like finding the exit from the backrooms. There's finally a thing that ties the entire concept to reality, intuitive reality, rather than the unreality of online discourse. People lost within the photo could immediately say where in the real world it was taken rather than suffering the onslaught of infinite potential speculative answers. Some can escape it at layer one, satisfied by the knowledge that it comes from a 4chan meme, but others are many too layers deep to end their search there.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

like, imagine 5 years from now when we talk about clipping into the backrooms, instead of getting chased by monsters or being trapped forever in a limbo dimension... the punchline we'll tell each other is "now you're in Topeka, Kansas."

[@ghostthelizard]

The truth is that the image is actually from the backrooms and that's why nobody can find the origin

[@strawdairymoo]

I wouldn't entirely rule out the store at 24:15 as a lead, it could've been renovated at some point and had the other display walls & ceiling tiles removed. idk how hard this would be, but if you could find out who built the store the photo was taken in you might be able to find other stores they've built that may have similar layouts

[@Awesomeness-iz3dh]

Actually got so excited seeing this in my subscriptions feed. Criminally underrated KZbinr with very thoughtful and grounded videos covering a topic that I'm personally interested in is like Christmas in May.

[@rorafoxx]

"I sure hope the backrooms locations gets found some day." A cool asf R/C dirt track:

[@farrellmcguire]

The AC/DC music really ties it all together

[@OfficialSusanWojcicki]

There was an old furniture store where I used to live as a kid. Funnily enough it was also a gungy, had these awful yellow flickering florescent lights with dingy carpet and I swear I can recall there being a tacky wallpaper. When I first saw that backrooms image, I had a Vietnam-esc flashback of being dragged it that place. Def isn't the same store, but the image is 100% a furniture shop. Be an old one though.

[@ThunderboltOverkill]

Congrats on being having the only video to correctly identify this as a furniture store 🎉

[@fwiffo]

Here's the thing. The backrooms were the scariest when the first photo was posted, and they immediately got less scary when somebody captioned it. Each piece of added lore degraded the unsettling feeling of the original image. By now it's exactly as creepy as "a skeleton popped out!" It's the same as Slenderman. The original creepypasta was freaky AF. Now it's camp.

[@MeemahSN]

The Backrooms lore feels like a budget version of the SCP wiki. The Backrooms doesn't really fit that style.

[@cralo2569]

wow u must be a scientist to discover such a smart conclusion mr. smarty panties

[@ExpertContrarian]

There was nothing scary about the photo until the caption was added

[@ExpertContrarian]

@@MeemahSNSCP wiki already is lame

[@MeemahSN]

@@ExpertContrarian debatable

[@reywilson4337]

The furniture store idea seems correct to me. BUT. I went into a church basement once that had a chair stuck to the concrete floor and an alcove maybe half a level up where you could look down on the chair room through this narrow rectangle hole in the wall. There are some weird church basements in this world, and if this or any other liminal space turned out to be under a church I would believe it 100%

[@fx7105]

Wtf 😭 why was it like that lol

[@therealwhite]

The great *Chult* is watching you, sinner.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

sounds like some kinda fasting cell or really really overdone confessional

[@red.aries1444]

The problem with any normal basement or office space is the question: Where are the electrical outlets and the baseboards? Only one socket and only one wall with a baseboard is very unlikely for such a space, but wouldn't be uncommon for a furniture shop.

[@stoplight2554]

i remember in about.. id say 2017 to 2018, the charter school i attended had moved into a new building, and one downstairs area it took them a while to re-model looked a lot like the backrooms image, so yeah spaces like that have existed in recent memory.

[@supersmilyface1]

I never realized the location had different wallpapers until now. Very interesting!

[@OurSpaceshipEarth]

I says its a wall paper factory AFTER they invented staplers and no one felt protected by the wallpaper anymore - they tried bubble wrap BUT THE POPPING led to another slew of phobias and crappy af lore to built content on like Did Dermatoligists for Giants invent bubble rap for students to practice but the addiction took over lives, just huddled together listening shuffling along for the next - pop.. ? :r[]

[@JamesR624]

That's because it doesn't. I am not sure how he got this far, only to completely forget about JPEG artifacting and low resolution illusions. Yes, even if this photo is STRAIGHT from the camera, that older camera still needed to encode the image onto the storage devce in the camera, and then Windows or whatever computer was used still needed to re-encode once more to an OS readable image format.

[@chestnut4860]

The real mystery is still how the fuck Kane pixel made this at 17.

[@farrellmcguire]

Some people are just built different

[@ShadowTheHedgehog003]

he didn't, he is making that movie though which is nuts

[@worldsstrongestgamer4033]

Have you heard of that like 13 year old kid who was an animator in across the spiderverse

[@Fastskull]

He didn't make the backrooms. His videos are indeed super cool though

[@UltimatePerfection]

​@@FastskullAre you sure?

[@Glip_Jip]

24:11 FINALLY, a video which does an actually GOOD analysis on my image. However, I think it's likely that the OG backrooms image was taken BEFORE '99, when a possibly previous furniture store owned it. But I guess we'll never know, and I think it's safe to let go of this lead. I'll always be present in the Virtual Carbon discord server, and always open to DM's if you have any questions of my image, my speculations, or other finds. Peace man ✌️

[@lyudmilapavlichenko7551]

I'm not a smart person but has anyone tried 1) finding the wallpaper design, brand, pattern and who makes it? 2) searched when cameras capable of taking the pictures first hit the market? I'm sure someone has already thought about it but I thought I'd ask. Happy hunting.

[@thecianinator]

Yes. They never found the wallpaper and those cameras existed from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s.

[@lyudmilapavlichenko7551]

@@thecianinator Ah.

[@egecky5042]

I've seen this image hundreds of times and never once have I noticed those half-walls that can barely be seen on the right side. As soon as you pointed those out, I immediately thought that this must be a furniture store, it reminded me of every IKEA I've been to. I'm 99% sure you're correct with the furniture store theory.

[@AlternativeSack123]

A very interesting video that reaches some good conclusions and doesn’t just rehash what others have already said. I think the main takeaway is the encoding analysis. It more or less proves that the image wasn’t uploaded to another site and was originally posted to 4chan. I think it’s very possible that the July 2012 post was the original upload and the only other one before 2018, which would explain why it can’t be found anywhere before that point. That post also likely has the context for the photo. For all we know the original thread was “post weird/creepy photos you’ve taken”, and the OG poster most likely took the photo himself. It could’ve either been an older photo they had lying around, or it’s very possible that someone in 2012 was still using an older digital camera, I think I was still had an old camcorder from 2007 at that point myself. I think finding the location is a bit hopeless, but a furniture store makes the most sense with the strange layout and different wallpapers. One other thing you didn’t mention is people found that one of the wallpapers in the image is from a 1984 Sears catalogue, and all the wallpaper in general seems to be from the 80s. The picture was most likely a furniture store that was being rearranged or redecorated, probably painting over the outdated wallpaper and moving in/out furniture. At this point the only possible lead would be somehow finding that old 4chan post from 2012 which seems unlikely:

[@legitscoper3259]

One thing you all miss is... when the photo was taken, it was old and empty... the original image could just be a "goodbye photo" after the building was cleared, but before it was demolished. I think the backrooms don't exist anymore, and the image was taken by a person who was part of the moving team and liked the looks, or had a person who had a personal connection to this place (like worked there or so) and that's why "goodbye photo" ... to have a image to remember bc its getting demolished.

[@mst4813]

I just wanna say this is a great video. I dont know anything or have any investment in the backrooms community but was gripped from start to finish. You showing your "detective" process with the image analysis was super interesting.

[@4niasomnia573]

To me, the original backrooms photo feels like an empty antique mall photo. Cheap yellow fluorescent lighting, wonky wallpaper, weirdly sized open rooms, what looks like ripped out baseboard heating…

[@OurSpaceshipEarth]

exactly what they would have in some backroom at a mall saves up - the stage decoration of the future 60-70s home -today (but then..) ;]

[@somerandomname3124]

Backrooms fans when they finally exit their parents home to scout out every furniture and carpeting store in the USA and Canada to find the original location of the photo (This is the scariest experience of their whole lives):

[@AnAverageGoblin]

Internet Investigator moment

[@RealOny]

tsmt

[@MostlyPonies1]

@@AnAverageGoblin Chalk the Boston marathon bombing fiasco up to experience, the Reddit sleuths are back in business!

[@TurtleSauceGaming]

My bet is still on bank owned home photo of a basement. Banks will have people go out and check on homes with no occupants they own, and as proof of condition photos are taken. A low resolution camera is cheap, and the photo is from the far corner of an oddly setup basement. This composure is used in these photos, and I've seen plenty of weirdly setup basements similar to this.

[@jus10lewissr]

The furniture store theory is honestly the best one I've ever heard, so it seems likely that you're on the right track. The change in color made it seem far more realistic, too, so I'm no longer as convinced as I was in thinking that it was just a fake, computer-generated image. Even though it took a very long time, people eventually found the original source of "Jeff the Killer" and even the name of the chick -- and details about her personal life -- whose face is in the obviously modified image, along with other pictures that made it easy to confirm. So, if that could be done, it's still a possibility that the original source of the backrooms image could someday be found as well. Do I think that'll happen? Not really, but I wasn't expecting anyone to finally figure out "Jeff the Killer" after years of failed attempts, false claims, and dead ends -- and yet it finally happened.

[@tomlotti240]

Dude, I bet they know it's location, and it's gonna be a part of the movie. In the conclusion, a meta-moment will happen where the audience will be shown the real location in a fictions movie, and it'll be some reality bending moment...cut to black.

[@Crinlask]

holy shit that's fucking genius.

[@ExpertContrarian]

I’ll take that bet

[@frickerrific2813]

Go finish your homework Tom

[@tomlotti240]

@@frickerrific2813 will do!

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

Too high scope for an A24 creepypasta film, lol

[@scoutz0rs]

I agree. I’ve always got the vibe it was a store of some kind. It reminded me of seeing empty-ish areas of old department or strip mall stores and how strange and sad they often looked. Worn carpet and scuffed walls and the knowledge that they used to be full and busy.

[@hamiltoncox7651]

Jeez, did no one here grow up in the 80's? Department stores like Macy's, Robinson's, The May Co. Etc. always put their furniture on the lower level. I don't know how many of those places my parents dragged me through that looked exactly like that. It's not a furniture store. It's the furniture department of a department store, usually mostly mattresses. Look for a major department store that was being decommissioned when the photo was taken.

[@SnapshotOfASoul]

It reminds me of prefab structures from the era. It does resemble retail, but it could have easily also been something like a home renovation/wall and floor coverings centre or even a library that just never bothered to update its wallpaper all at once.

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

Just a thought: the current wall socket standard in Brazil was only introduced in 2006. Before that we used the US standard, and some old buildings here (from around the estimated 70's era for the wallpaper) did in fact use carpeted flooring. So, maybe it was here? That'd be a twist, huh!

[@kwanvini]

yeah i would be in absolute disbelief, maybe it was some type of artistic instalation they did here

[@recurvestickerdragon]

did any of the major cities ever get a Sears, or probably similar big department stores?

[@Wilker_uwu]

@@recurvestickerdragon i remember we did have the big ones in Brazil, but that wouldn't cross my mind immediately, because i've always known them to have a much more open space in the architecture, even with the cubicles/divisors

[@Wilker_uwu]

@@recurvestickerdragon i've never heard of Sears btw

[@TheQuinn50]

one thing I see people missing is the orientation of it, newer buildings ive seen install them upside down with the grounding pin protecting the hot terminals so it could narrow the dates down?

[@ImperfectV01D]

14:44 The wall doesn't abruptly dip down around the light. What you're looking at is just a jpeg artifact. The top edge of the wall is actually angled slightly downward from left to right. It just looks almost perfectly horizontal because it's coincidentally almost perfectly aligned with the edge of a row of dct blocks. In reality, the top edge of the wall just to the left of the light is actually about two pixels lower than it appears. This tricked me too when I first tried to analyze it.

[@cardinalhamneggs5253]

The fact that the legendary KanePixels is two years my junior is mindblowing.

[@knowingwhatthebuttondoes3432]

Bit off topic but thank you for the 'before' KZbin search tip. I've got an old Ableton tutorial from 2012 I've been trying to track down for years but could never find. You have helped me find it today. Thanks dude!

[@percorset]

what if instead of the "the backrooms" we had "the freakrooms" and instead of "entities" we head "freakies"

[@creeke_alley]

Carl92 would be there

[@SomeAverageYoutuber]

@@creeke_alleyplaying that movie

[@Kurminatorkurmi]

Bro I am literally going to stalk you this week😅

[@percorset]

@@Kurminatorkurmi not cool dude... not cool

[@creeke_alley]

@@Kurminatorkurmi jokes on you I’ve already been stalking you for a month 😉

[@19.-ke2ld]

Brilliant video! It is pleasing to finally see someone coming up with actually plausible theories supported by evidence revolving around what type of building the photo possibly could have been taken in. Your editing skills are also good, very underrated channel!

[@wachimingoxd]

instant sub. no one does it like you. you're gonna go far bro

[@ghjpkshdgtjdgvbzm]

The origin of the image has just been discovered, as well as the exact time and address it was taken at.

[@ks2650]

So well done!! Glad this was recommended to me, hope it will gain the popularity it deserves. Love this vid, so well done, love the idea and hope yall find it soon

[@R4ndomUser567]

The amount of depth this video goes into is insanely underrated

[@fittgamertube]

This video should be famous your research was great, you didn't made people follow wrong leads you are a responsible creator.

[@kompst_tu]

I do actually think you guys had the right location, i just think the photo is of the store but from a long time ago before there was trimwork. The wallpaper is of course going to be changed since then and trimming to be added to modernize things. The layout is identical down to the number of fluorecent lights. Outlet doesnt need to be there for it to be the same location. They probably just took it out when they redid the building. Walls could have absolutely been knocked down. Dont see a good reason for this to have heen shot down as the potential location.

[@ExpertContrarian]

Because the wallpaper is old and the furniture store is not that old

[@OurSpaceshipEarth]

Nothing you said remotely points to that or ANY OTHER SORTA SIMILAR ROOM. It's NOT hard to pull measurements from an image down to fractions of inch even. then tape measure go to possible location.reasons you gave why it COULD be ARE SAME REASONS THAT IT LIKELY IS NOT, just doesn't catch adhesion. Inspired comment, ya got me worked up :)

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

Good work (esp. on the outlet, and 'yellowing' of photo). May I suggest looking for the wallpaper patterns? And people who do (or did) paper hanging? The building or abandoned Mall that had the furniture store may simply not exist now.

[@redvolvershine4751]

The sad reality of this search is the that odds are that this place is long gone either through remolding or possibly demolished for new sold property.

[@ascheleja-piano9246]

Hello, I’m gonna save 30 minutes of your life, we don’t know where it was taken but it was probably a furniture store. edit: Yall if you are the kind of person who came here for the journey and not because you finally wanted to know where it was taken then just ignore this. This comment is saying that the title is misleading and some people might think he actually finds out where.

[@Numba1hunna83]

Thank you.

[@AnAntidisestablishmentarianist]

This needs to be shown on the screen at the beginning of the video.

[@goondiozh]

bro I watched it on 2x and THERE'S NOTHING

[@iscuit]

ty but it was really interesting to learn about image forensics either way

[@BabyCharmander]

These kinds of things are about the journey, not the destination. I enjoyed the video.

[@kouhai2456]

i had always thought that it was a furniture store, because of the reasons that you described. it's honestly kind of surprising that it's taken this long for people to start looking more into that aspect.

[@myLinoRBX]

I FINALLY FOUND ALL INFOS IN COMMENTS : Location: 807 Oregon St Oshkosh, WI 54902 Date of image: 06/12/2002 08:21:13 Camera: SONY Cybershot ISO: 190 Focal Length: 6.1 mm Shutter: 1/30 (0.0333 seconds) 0.3 megapixels 72 DPI

[@jaaaaaane]

When I was younger, my dad managed a furniture store. It was so fun to be in the space after hours and to run around with my younger sisters while he finished up tasks. But it sometimes gave me an uneasy feeling-I got stuck in the elevator sometimes, and occasionally got lost in the odd layout of the store. For the backrooms to be a furniture store would make so much sense. At least for me, it would explain the familiar, liminal feeling I get when I look at the picture. This theory convinces me a lot.

[@thearmy7876]

this guy needs more subs fr

[@Rych3rInLyf3]

Seriously. His History of Nostalgia video is what sold me and Im glad I subbed.

[@thearmy7876]

@@Rych3rInLyf3 yes the dead internet iceberg is what made me sub

[@NoahDoesStuff19]

Trueee

[@JackTavern629]

Just subbed 💪🏽

[@Mondoblasto0]

The area this shows could easily and simply not exist anymore. Businesses and buildings cease to be and are demolished or gutted to be rebuilt all the time.

[@nataliapockets]

to me it looks like a photo of a level of a tall building/sky scraper which would explain the ceiling, lights and set up etc. The wallpaper makes it look home-ly though, which is why I think it creeps people out. I would also look at the wallpaper pattern and where they got that from

[@smithys_exploration]

Your channel is seriously underrated, your skill at searching and coming up with likely answers is insane

[@Leo-sd3jt]

It's so weird watching this and then, while watching this, looking this up on a different browser window only to discover that the mystery has been solved. Like I found a reddit post on /r/backrooms detailing how it was found...and the post is an hour old. Oshkosh is such a cool name for a town.

[@minipz9thebastfiiter509]

*REMINDER: PLEASE DO NOT GO OUT AND HARASS THE OWNERS OF THE BUSINESS AROUND THE AREA OR ANYTHING OR DO ANYTHING IMMORAL, We don’t want another Fnaf ARG situation so please do not harass anyone living in the area via phone calls and stuff. Let’s all rejoice we actually found the original image*

[@Leo-sd3jt]

@@minipz9thebastfiiter509 yeah, exactly.. It would be dumb to contact people since the photo is now known to be 20+ years old and we now know for sure where it's from. However it is an excuse to personally celebrate by enjoying the other mysteries of the internet.

[@ghostface9052]

This is such a good vid and this guy only has 150 views

[@BaccarWozat]

You were right about the furniture store! Awesome!

[@alfredandersson875]

Thank you for not being afraid to call others out. You’re not spitting vitriol but also not afraid to point out the errors and overzealous haste of others. Many content creators seem to avoid this when they gain an audience as to not squander business opportunities and relationships. I find that somewhat cowardly - or at the very least a cheap excuse to not “ruffle feathers”. I don’t believe calling out bad practice has to be hostile. The way you went about it in this video was very respectful while clearly showing off the errors of such practices but ultimately allowing the viewer to formulate their own opinion. Neutral or friendly criticism should be encouraged.

[@bellboi8307]

Liminal space again! This topic is best done by you! Good work!

[@veronicaspencer6296]

I am very glad that the first video I decided to watch on the origins of the backrooms video was this one--I appreciate the research that went into it and the way in which it was presented. I'd actually thought for a while that the photo likely came from a furniture showroom; I'm glad to have been on the right track! Going to be looking at more of your work as a result. Thanks for the video!

[@cwb43068]

Has any one thought of a funeral home? from the looks of it they were probably doing demo and tore the building down. the rub rails could be for the dollies? Id think a furniture store would have more outlets for floor lights. Overhead lights work for shopping for a casket.

[@ForgottenMachines]

24:10 I like the department store-style background music choice for this segment, nicely done!

[@stevenedwards8353]

The moment the real location is found, and, let's be honest there's no chance the location isn't eventually getting leaked when that happens, that place is going to become a holy Mecca and get SO overcrowded with tourists!

[@FishwicksREAL]

It's going to be destroyed

[@stevenedwards8353]

@@FishwicksREAL if not physically, at least financially, they'll get floods of tourists just wanting to take pictures and pose all day, scaring off any potential real customer who just wants furniture

[@FishwicksREAL]

@@stevenedwards8353 they leaked previous backrooms locations and they were destroyed. so no, they'd be destroyed.

[@xeokym223]

When I was a kid in the 70s, my mom used to drag me around every Sears & JC Penny's for hours and HOURS at a time on a regular basis while she obsessively shopped for clothes. She bought a lot of stuff and left me alone wandering the stores or interminably stuck in a boring dressing room while she tried on clothes for hours (no exaggeration). She also made a LOT of returns. The first time I saw the backrooms photo it was like deja vu, and made me flashback to this one time we were at a Sears that was in the process of closing down its location. My mom was trying to make a return but the place was in chaos and we had to go to the backrooms of the store to find a makeshift returns window. It was not in the basement, just on the same floor as the clothes. I was kind of running to keep up with her because she was urgently trying to make this damn return before the store closed, and we went winding through this area that seemed like a maze. It was more of an employee area which was in the process of being stripped, while still operating last minute processes. There weren't really desks, more like just walled off areas for each process, like a staging area for employees but also some "booth like" areas with windows where customers could get helped with various things. After a lot of confusing running through this maze we finally arrived at the makeshift returns window where my mom got her money back. It really stuck in my mind because as a kid I actually got kind of scared that we were going to get lost back there and not be able to get out. Those old department stores always had a backrooms kind of area where you could go put stuff in lay away, an area for getting professional photographs, mail-order pick-up windows, a window if you wanted to buy bonds, a sit-down area if you wanted to fill out an application for credit, stuff like that, as well as staging areas for employees setting up merchandise. They were _office-like,_ but they weren't an office exactly because each area wasn't a cubicle, they were walled off for privacy pertaining to the operations. Sometimes the bathrooms were located in there, too. That incident always stuck with me because the store was in the process of shutting down and even though there were a lot of people doing last minute things, it seemed very stark because they had been removing all the furniture and things that had been back there. I think it stuck with me because of how irrationally scared I was because I thought we could get lost in there or that I'd get separated from my mom and not be able to find my way out. I really have no clue if the backrooms photo was a Sears but it sure looks like it the way I remember it. I don't know if this helps at all and I don't want to cause anyone to go on some long hunt just because of something I remember from 50 years ago.

[@momoha222]

I didn't know anything about the backrooms, but this was such an entertaining investigation! Your conclusion seems very plausible.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

Please don't follow us down this rabbit-hole...SAVE YOURSELF! RUN! ;-)

[@oldfashionedboots2774]

Wow this is such a great theory! Honestly I never even thought about the wallpaper before now, but it being a furniture store makes so much sense

[@FileNotFound404]

If the real location still exists, it'll be on my bucket list of places to see before I die. Just to get a glance of those walls and that carpet would be worth every second of my failed hours, days, and weeks of trying to find it myself. Just to be there, from the perspective of the original image, and to just... look around, peek my head around the corner, see what's behind the wall, to turn around and see the other half of the room. But I'm also aware that, if it is found, and does still exist, then it will be swamped with "tourists", and that magic I'm seeking will be snuffed out before it can ever manifest. And that's if it exists anymore at all.

[@guilldea]

My old man was an architect and he independently came up with your same conclusion, plus he added some more evidence. In the back we can see a wall that doesnt reach the ceiling, these walls are a pain, they are unstable and need to be reinforced so they are not placed for any reason, it was raised to make artificial "room vignettes" or fake rooms to showcase the furniture, but it was raised after the ceiling was finished so it couldn't be fixed to it without breaking through the drop ceiling and rearranging its tiles so, even when these kind of walls are inefficient they still wanted to raise them to make their showroom. Plus this would explain why so much lighting was installed on a room that feels like a house, they wanted to showcase their goods

[@AidenRKrone]

Oddly enough, I've never once seen any furniture store that looks like that. All the furniture stores I've stepped foot in - which, granted, isn't many - have wide, open spaces, rather than modular, cubicle-like displays.

[@Dargonhuman]

Back in 2003/2004ish I did some temp work at a furniture store that had dedicated the entire back third of the showroom to cubicled mockups of different rooms to demonstrate how their pieces would look together in a bedroom, living room, home office, etc. While I never saw the spaces empty, I can easily imagine they would have looked very similar.

[@EdenNeedsAYoutubeHandle]

The backrooms photo always triggered a very specific piece of nostalgia from my childhood: a liquidation store in a yellow-tinted basement mall complex in the late 90's that would frequently have spaces of the store almost devoid of furniture in between liquidation shipments.

[@SlumberBear2k]

reverse image search like 15 years ago would have found it in a split second. I'm sure someone at google could find it in a second because they probably have access to the old utility.

[@JJAB91]

Reverse image search really wasn't much of a thing 15 years ago

[@SlumberBear2k]

@@JJAB91 it actually was. and it was really good.

[@UD503J]

The funny thing is, after working retail for almost a dozen years when I was younger, everything about the original photo screamed "showroom" to me. I used to work in a store that sold office furniture and we had these little 3/4 walls that came up from the floor and divided the space into mock offices to show off what a bunch of pieces from a specific collection would look like put together (i.e., a desk, credenza, file cabinets, a desk chair and possible side or guest chairs.) Our setups were maybe 6ft by 6 ft squares, and they'd be built from two 12 ft walls that would intersect, making a cross with 4 setups around the walls. There were a bunch of them end to end with maybe a few feet in between to break up the little office demos, creating the cellular look that the Backrooms photo and subsequent interpretations have. If you emptied the sections out of furniture, besides the low acoustic tile ceiling, it would have really looked like a 90's version of the original photo.

[@undersc0r]

Man I remember watching DavidCrypt's videos on this already 4 years ago back in 2020. It's great to see that people are still looking into this and I can't wait for the day we finally find the origin.

[@modifidious]

Crazy how someone on Twitter had found the origin of the photo in 2019 but no one really cared!

[@luxia5142]

It's because the reply was made to a private user :) So no one could rlly see it

[@modifidious]

@luxia5142 still crazy lol, he had found it 5 years before anyone else

[@GLUBSCHI]

Wait really? Source?

[@modifidious]

@@GLUBSCHI it's on reddit

[@GlassesnMouthplates]

I like the details with the "Store Closing Sale" posters, implying that the render took place a while before the furniture store became the infamous backroom.

[@Kekktye]

Why would you trust some random phone representative? No way they have definitive and detailed knowledge of the floor plan of every location likely going back 20 years. They're probably just not paid enough to care. That's how I'd respond to a call at work. The photos are shockingly similar. I'd say this is not a lead to abandon.

[@gameteamsk6892]

the ceiling is vastly different and i doubt they would change it that much while still keeping the layout

[@HumanGamer]

I showed this video to my mom in case she had been anywhere like this. She said it could have been the Eaton's store in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada before it was torn down (or it could be the original location of The Bay in Winnipeg). My mom said they had similar layouts, and that kind of wallpaper but they would change the wall paper every now and then. I hope that info is helpful! :)

[@QuartiyoPasdevHerjiKreuz]

Imagine just like ekt "Ulterior motives" it's in a nsfw movie as the background, and we were looking in the wrong places the whole time. That would be crazy ngl.

[@amoureux6502]

The thought of this being the chosen setting for an adult flick is absolutely hilarious

[@Jan-z4i]

Came for The backrooms - Keep finding EKT jokes.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

honestly, a movie set would also make sense for the weird layout

[@pamigreenway]

That shade of yellow was iconic in the 70s. Oh, gods, my mom's kitchen looked like that image threw up on it.

[@mozzapple]

I think you should revisit the furniture store. Just because the lady on the phone is claiming it isn't the same store doesn't mean that's actually the case. I bet she hasn't even been working there that long and just didn't want to deal with people asking about the property. You can't just blindly trust one woman and throw out the entire theory because of her You should try to get someone to physically go to the location and maybe even measure the walls to see if the sizes match