urbex

Photographer Captures the Decline of the Church in Italy

Church buildings have been a mainstay feature throughout Europe for centuries. From quaint country chapels to luxurious and majestic cathedrals, the “Old World” is home or has been home to hundreds of churches. Some of them are maintained in pristine shape, highly regarded as national treasures, while others meet a rather different ending, being left in the hands of time and its relentless way of decaying things.

Photographer Finds Abandoned Cold War Nuclear Fallout Shelter

The Cold War is the conventional name for the period of political and military competition between two blocs led by the US and the USSR. This rivalry was mainly ideological and economic, intensified by the conventional and nuclear arms race.

Photos of an Abandoned Underground Ammo Factory in Albania

In the 1960s and ‘70s, the town of Poliçan was one of the largest and most important armaments centers in Albania. For security reasons, most information about the site was top secret and the town itself was closed to foreigners.

Photographer Uncovers the Soviet Underworld Below Tbilisi, Georgia

Beneath the streets of Tbilisi lies a network of tunnels, bomb shelters, and Soviet-era chambers that many locals know nothing about. Over the past several months, photographer David Tabagari has been exploring this silent underworld with extraordinary results.

Photos of Beirut One Year After the Port Explosion

The explosion that happened last year in the Port of Beirut, Lebanon, has moved everyone. The Port of Beirut explosion on August 4th, 2020, didn’t just make it to the headlines for days, but it also massively impacted the beauty, life, and development of the Paris of the Middle East, i.e., Beirut.

Photographer Captures the Crumbling Luxury of an Abandoned French Chateau

French photographer Romain Veillon recently had the chance to explore a famous old chateau that represented the height of luxury in 1901. Now abandoned, the chateau in Veillon's images shows how the ravages of time spare no second thought for riches, leaving the place, quite literally, in tatters.

Chernobyl After HBO: Exploring the Hidden Places Tourists Don’t See

Last year, more than 120,000 tourists visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and in 2020 that number is expected to double. Mass tourism has forever become a part of the Exclusion Zone, mostly because of the successful HBO series “Chernobyl.”

Over the Horizon: Aerial Photos of the USSR’s Giant Nuclear Detection System

The DUGA over-the-horizon radar was one of the most important elements of the early warning system against an American nuclear attack on the USSR. More expensive to build than the nearby nuclear power plant, the complex consisted to two massive sets of receiving antennas located in Chernobyl and one transmission unit—which no longer exists—60km away in the town of Lubech-1.

The Sarcophagus: Photographing the Most Radioactive Places in Chernobyl

It’s been 3 years since the giant, 36,000-ton New Safe Confinement (better known as The Arch) was put over the damaged old sarcophagus that helps contain the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. A symbolic moment that also summed up my 10 years of work documenting the Chernobyl Zone. However, just as the building of the new sarcophagus didn't finish the work inside related to eliminating the radioactive threat, I still have a reason to come here.

I Found an Abandoned ‘Palace’ in the Desert, It’s Actually a Gameshow Set

While exploring the southern, lesser-known part of the Jordanian desert Wadi Rum, I notice a remarkable, palace-like structure sitting on a high, rocky cliff. The view reminded me of a scene from the classic Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia. It just lacked camel caravans and people.

I Dropped My Camera in Crude Oil… and It Survived

This past week, I had a bit of an accident with my Fujifilm X-T1 while doing some urban exploration in an abandoned fuel bunker. To cut a long story short, I ended up going for a swim in very oily water in a large partially flooded pump room with my camera.

Rare Photos Inside the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus

In September 2018, I was asked to travel to Cyprus and photograph the Buffer Zone (or Green Line) in Nicosia. It was an exclusive opportunity since this area is not accessible for civilians -- it's a demilitarised zone (DMZ), patrolled by the United Nations.

Photos Inside the Ruins of Luxurious Soviet Spas and Sanatoria

The Soviet Utopia: sending your hard-working state citizens on a health holiday to one of the empire's many sanatoria. Originally conceived in the 1920s, these USSR sanatoria offered a combination of health and medical benefits alongside thermal baths and spas. These institutions were once among the most innovative buildings of that era.

I Visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with an Infrared Camera

A few years ago, I visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with an infrared camera. We always hear praises of the might of Mother Nature, how it renders useless mans’ creations and bears life above the ruins. Well, it’s something that is always felt, but never on such a huge scale. This place IS the place for these contrasts.

Dying for Likes on Social Media

In the usual places we're seeing the monthly "Urbex (urban exploration) photographer dies in fall" story making the rounds. These are guys that trespass on rooftops, on ledges, in abandoned buildings, and so on, to take photographs.

This Photographer Snuck Into the Wrecked Cruise Ship Costa Concordia

On January 13th, 2012, the giant Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized and sank off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, after running into an underwater rock, claiming 32 lives. In August 2014, in the midst of the salvaging operation, photographer Jonathan Danko Kielkowski secretly snuck onto the ship to document it in photos.

My Visit to the Abandoned Radioactive City of Pripyat

Before you read the rest of the article, and it will be a long read, please allow me to share a few thoughts with you. Visiting the abandoned city of Pripyat and the disaster site of Chernobyl was an experience that I was looking forward to for a very long time.

Photographing the Famous Abandoned Church Full of ‘Ghosts’

In this blog I would like to show you one of the scariest churches I have ever visited, back in March 2015. The church is located in a small town in the Czech Republic, and it was originally built in the 14th century.

15 Photos of Abandoned Bedrooms I Found While Exploring

The bedroom is one of the most personal spaces in a house, hotel, or any other kind of building. It’s a place where my imagination can go wild. When I stand in an abandoned bedroom I’d like to think, "What happened here?."

Photos Take Us Inside Nara Dreamland, An Abandoned Theme Park in Japan

Nara Dreamland was a theme park in Japan that was built back in 1961 and inspired by Disneyland. After the number of visitors dropped, the theme park was permanently closed in 2006 and has been abandoned ever since. French photographer Victor Habchy took his camera into the run-down park to capture what it looks like after 10 years of neglect.

Eerie Photos of an Abandoned Animal Testing Facility

About 5 years ago, the last employees that worked here left. The company was bought by a Swiss giant in the industry and they decided to move the facility. The site this facility was built on was rented, but the new owners did not renew the contract.

This New Documentary Follows the Top Urbex Photographers in Europe

The best Urbex photographers in Europe—13 young shooters from the cities of Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague and Bratislava—are the subject of the latest documentary generating some hype in the photo world. It's called Run The World, and its first trailer is dripping with a devil-may-care attitude.

Photographer Sneaks Into Radioactive Ghost Towns in Fukushima

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was devastated by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the nuclear disaster caused a major evacuation and the creation of an exclusion zone around the old plant. Five years later, a photographer has ventured into the zone to deliver photos to the outside world.