During my last journey in Ireland, my attention was drawn by an article in the local press about a former touristic hotel that was closed for years. I decided it was worth a little visit during my next travel. I was completely astonished when I discovered what was inside! The rooms were fully recovered by vegetation, ferns, and ivy! Nature really reclaimed its due here.
Located on the coast, the wind and many storms of the area must have broken the windows and brought water inside daily so that it grew so much in a few years... It's untouched, you can still find so many objects: phones, tables, books, chairs, old paintings, glasses, TVs, even hair dryers...
When you have the chance to explore such an amazing place, you feel like in one of those post-apocalyptic shows where mankind disappeared from the face of the earth and where you wander through an empty world. It's an eerie feeling, the atmosphere created is unbelievable and I hope I was able to give a faithful report in my photographs.
I love abandoned places in general but what impresses me the most are the places overgrown by nature! I love when those buildings look like man has disappeared from the planet, like a post-apocalyptic world. Moreover, this hotel was completely untouched, nobody set foot there in nearly ten years!
The first thing I thought when I saw those rooms is that they all look like old paintings! I thought I was very lucky to witness those things. There is no graffiti or empty beers everywhere on the floor. One of my Irish friends brought me there and I was very thankful to him! There was not much space in the rooms so I took a lot of time to imagine the frame. It was easier for the restaurant and the bar because there was more space. I tried to make my report as if it was an actual hotel trying to promote itself to attract clients. I thought it was funny to imagine this "fake" promotion. Therefore, I showed all the furniture that was still in the hotel (like the hair dryer, the televisions, the glasses, the beds, the phones, the mirrors, etc.).
These images are clearly a post-apocalyptic series that could remind us of The Last of Us, The Stand, or I Am Legend. I love movies or books that depict dystopic or post-apocalyptic universes. When you see the success of the Walking Dead, for example, you know it’s a subject that attracts everyone. But to be honest, I used the same equipment (Nikon D800 and a wide angle lens) and techniques I am using normally when I photograph derelict places. It's more in the processing of the picture that I try to enhance the colors and the light. It is also the order of the pictures and the choice you make before publishing it.
Besides the former touristic hotel in Ireland, I have explored other abandoned locations with equally captivating stories. One of them is Kolmanskop! It was a mining town in the middle of the Namib Desert in Namibia. Driven by the huge amount of diamonds, people basically created this town out of nothing and made it a prosperous city. In 1954, diamonds started to decrease and the population moved south where a new vein had been found. It became a ghost town, and now it is completely filled with sand. I was there for a week shooting, the atmosphere is somehow unreal and magical, like time stopped there years ago. That is my report that is the most known and it is also the perfect illustration of what I want to show. Moreover, it is a unique place where you feel you could be on another planet or even in another timeline where mankind has disappeared.
Even if it is not the first thing you see in this photographic series, my work usually conveys an environmental message. My book The World Without Us shows what the world could be like if we weren’t there anymore, meaning that if we continue in this way, humanity's disappearance could be one of the consequences. That’s what I prefer working on when ivy takes over everything. We can see what the world could look like if humans disappeared from Earth. We are all fascinated by this post-apocalyptic vision. Maybe we need to be the witness of that to enjoy what we have and the time in front of us. As I said before, the main thing for me is that people create their own stories when they are looking at my photographs.
