“The Island Of Love With A Dark Past”: I Took Photos Of Abandoned Places in Cyprus (25 Pics)

My work provides a window into the past, showing what lies behind closed doors where I have discovered belongings from vintage vaults, family photos, cars left to rot, 1950s love letters, and antiques. When exploring, it feels like stepping back in time, and I believe it is my duty to reveal to the world the secrets of these forgotten and once-thriving sites, untouched for over half a century. Remnants from various historical periods can be found at these abandoned places, ranging from the ancient Greeks, Crusaders, Byzantine, Venetian, Ottoman, and British empires.

Generally, people know little about Cyprus apart from its reputation as a beautiful Mediterranean island where tourists flock all year round. However, it has a dark past stemming from a conflict that has not yet healed. Since 1974, the island has been physically split between the Turkish-held North, which isn't recognized by any nation in the world (apart from Turkey), and the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state in the south.

Both sides remain in conflict to this day. The "Cyprus problem," as it is known, is more relevant now than ever due to recent rising tensions. There is a physical border of walls and barbed wire separating both sides, manned by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force.

Most of the abandoned places I have photographed date from when the conflict began in the 1960s up to the present. Several of my trips were conducted with the protection of the UN and the British military on various occasions.

Much of my work is the only documentation that exists of these forgotten places. They provide a unique and valuable record of a vanishing landscape, one that, within a few years, will either crumble to dust from conflict or be destroyed by bulldozers as part of Cyprus's modernization. Many have already suffered this fate.