decay, hooray!

 

I am always looking for the beauty in the forgotten, neglected and banal so the photographs of Vincent Jansen are so up my alley. I feel like whenever I find another photographer that is looking at abandoned or forgotten space I end up writing about them.

Jansen has a beautiful series in which he goes into abandoned homes, churches, schools, theme parks etc. and documents what remains, the process of nature taking it  back and the beauty of it all. His images are quite stunning, very eerie and seem to say much about our throw-a-way culture and the abundance of stuff that we as a culture create.

He says this about his work:

There is a mysterious world of which almost nobody knows it exists. A fascinating world, where time has stopped. Where mankind has withdrawn and nature slowly gains ground. Loneliness and desolation play a leading role.

This world is hidden behind ‘No Trespassing’ signs. These are very photogenic places that
are worth to be immortalized...I try to capture the atmosphere of those places. I enter sites where no one cares for anymore and try to tell their story with my pictures. It is a combination of curiosity, excitement, naughtiness or devilment.

I find it interesting in how much of the textiles and decorative objects remain in these space you can still see the wallpaper, the parquet floor, the gauzy curtains.

See more of his work at his website Hooray for Decay and via his flickr page.