History

How Liminal Spaces Became a Trend: A Brief History

Published: 2026-08-15

"Liminal space" is used all over the world today, but the term's roots trace back to a single image posted online in 2019. Here's the timeline of how it grew from that one post into a global phenomenon.

A deserted San Francisco street during the 2020 lockdowns — the kind of scene that helped push the liminal space trend into the mainstream. Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin (CC BY 2.0), Source: Wikimedia Commons

It Started with One Image in May 2019

The roots of today's liminal space aesthetic trace back to May 2019, when a photo was posted to a thread on an anonymous imageboard dedicated to unsettling images: a yellow-carpeted, fluorescent-lit interior with nobody in it. On its own, it was just a photo — but when another user added a fictional premise, describing an infinite maze of rooms you could "noclip" into from reality, the prototype for what became the Backrooms urban legend was born.

The 2002 photo that was posted to 4chan in 2019, sparking the whole trend — The very photo that was posted to 4chan in 2019 and touched off the Backrooms and liminal space trend. Photo: Bill Magritz (CC0 1.0 (パブリックドメイン)), Source: Wikimedia Commons

Spreading as the Backrooms Urban Legend

That premise caught on almost instantly, with users collectively adding their own "levels" and "entities" to expand the Backrooms mythology. As the Backrooms story spread, interest also grew in the underlying photo aesthetic that started it all — the empty, fluorescent-lit space itself.

Independent Growth on Reddit, Tumblr, and TikTok

Separately from the Backrooms narrative, the term "liminal space" spread on its own across Reddit, Tumblr, and TikTok. Communities and accounts dedicated purely to liminal space photography sprang up one after another, and the concept settled in as its own photography genre and aesthetic, independent of the urban legend that had helped popularize it.

The Pandemic Lockdowns Accelerated It

The trend got a major boost around 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders across the world meant that cities and shopping centers that were normally packed became genuinely, physically empty. Millions of people had a firsthand experience of a familiar place suddenly turning silent — which resonated strongly with the liminal space concept and is thought to have driven a major surge in its popularity.

A Viral Video Took It Even Further

In 2022, a found-footage-style Backrooms video by then-16-year-old creator Kane Pixels went viral and spread explosively. For many people, this video was their first introduction to both the Backrooms and liminal spaces as concepts. It marked the shift from a purely visual trend into a full movement spanning video, games, and fiction.

Why It's Catching On in Japan Now

Following this global trend, awareness of the liminal space concept has gradually grown in Japan too. Japan already had cultures closely related to it — haikyo (ruins) exploration, photography of deserted train stations — so in many ways, importing the term simply gave a name to a feeling that already existed here without one.

FAQ

When did the term "liminal space" originate?

Its current usage traces back to around 2019, starting with a post on an anonymous overseas imageboard.

Is there a connection between COVID-19 and liminal spaces?

A strong one. The real experience of lockdowns emptying out familiar streets and buildings resonated with the liminal space concept and is thought to have significantly boosted its popularity.