honorable mention
Jonk - france
title
Naturalia
Far from being negative or pessimistic, and at a time where Man’s domination on Nature has never been this extreme, she aims to wake consciousness.
In her inexorable progression, She starts infiltrating the insides of a Montenegrin castle (Picture 1). Then, She grows in a Cuban theater (2) before filling up all the space of an Italian Church (3).
After that, She guzzles the cross of a Belgian monastery (4) or given more time, imprisons a Taiwanese mansion with her strong roots (5).
The next step? Collapse and burial.
What will then be left of what Man has built? Nothing. A souvenir. A shot that a curious adventurer would have taken there some years before.
When Nature and Time ally against Man, what will be left of our civilization?
Roaming in abandoned places looking for graffiti, I realized the intensity of the atmospheres and the beauty of the spectacle of passage of time: rust, decaying and peeling painted walls, broken windows, nature taking back create unbelievable sceneries, of high photogeny. For me, these scenes felt like infinite poetry.
At the hour of choices, this new passion imposed itself, even if I could not get rid of my nickname, symbol of my graffiti artist times, highly important to me.
Today, fifteen years later, I visited more than one thousand locations in more than forty countries on four continents.
With time, my interest concentrated on what appeared to me to be the strongest in this vast subject of abandonment: Nature taking back. It is poetic, even magic, to see this Nature retaking what used to be hers, reintegrating through broken windows, cracks on the walls, spaces built by Man and then neglected, until sometimes guzzling them up entirely.
In March 2018, I released the book “Naturalia” on the topic and currently work on volume II asked by the publisher.
In June 2018, I quit my job to fully dedicate myself to photography and to this subject.
back to gallery
entry description
This series questions the place of Man on planet Earth and his relationship with Nature. Man builds for his own peculiar reasons. Man abandons for other peculiar reasons. Nature does not care about those reasons. But one thing is for sure, She is disturbed in her evolution. When Man leaves, She comes back and does not do things by halves, She takes back everything.Far from being negative or pessimistic, and at a time where Man’s domination on Nature has never been this extreme, she aims to wake consciousness.
In her inexorable progression, She starts infiltrating the insides of a Montenegrin castle (Picture 1). Then, She grows in a Cuban theater (2) before filling up all the space of an Italian Church (3).
After that, She guzzles the cross of a Belgian monastery (4) or given more time, imprisons a Taiwanese mansion with her strong roots (5).
The next step? Collapse and burial.
What will then be left of what Man has built? Nothing. A souvenir. A shot that a curious adventurer would have taken there some years before.
When Nature and Time ally against Man, what will be left of our civilization?
about the photographer
When I was seventeen, I went to Barcelona to spend the summer. There, I discovered a huge graffiti culture which is a part me until today. Since that summer, I shoot street art and graffiti everywhere I go. Always with the idea of finding pictures that not everyone does, I started adventuring into in abandoned places, where graffiti artists often go to paint, to be alone and able to take time to make bigger and better pieces. After some time frequenting these artists, I started myself to paint there. That’s actually the reason why I adopted a nickname.Roaming in abandoned places looking for graffiti, I realized the intensity of the atmospheres and the beauty of the spectacle of passage of time: rust, decaying and peeling painted walls, broken windows, nature taking back create unbelievable sceneries, of high photogeny. For me, these scenes felt like infinite poetry.
At the hour of choices, this new passion imposed itself, even if I could not get rid of my nickname, symbol of my graffiti artist times, highly important to me.
Today, fifteen years later, I visited more than one thousand locations in more than forty countries on four continents.
With time, my interest concentrated on what appeared to me to be the strongest in this vast subject of abandonment: Nature taking back. It is poetic, even magic, to see this Nature retaking what used to be hers, reintegrating through broken windows, cracks on the walls, spaces built by Man and then neglected, until sometimes guzzling them up entirely.
In March 2018, I released the book “Naturalia” on the topic and currently work on volume II asked by the publisher.
In June 2018, I quit my job to fully dedicate myself to photography and to this subject.
back to gallery