Posts
Where time stands still: Haunting beauty of abandoned mansions, shuttered asylums and deserted amusement parks across the world are caught on camera
Published: 02:14 GMT, 20 June 2014 | Updated: 06:36 GMT, 20 June 2014
Dutch photographer Niki Feijen has criss-crossed the world looking for crumbling beauty lurking beneath a thick layer of dust inside long-forgotten buildings.
Feijen, who made headlines last year with his first self-published book of photographs titled Disciple of Decay, is now preparing to unveil to the world his latest project titled Frozen.
The new book, which is being released next month at the Berliner Liste art fair, features 184 pages of stunning interiors of abandoned mansions, mental institutions and churches from around the world.
+21
Exploring decay: Dutch photographer Niki Feijen has traversed the world looking for crumbling beauty lurking beneath a thick layer of dust inside private bedrooms and public buildings
+21
Globe-trotter: For years, the Dutchman has been traveling the world looking for boarded up buildings
+21
Sequel: Feijen is now preparing to unveil to the world his latest project titled Frozen as a follow-up on his self-published book Disciple of Decay
+21
+21
Hallowed ground: Feijen has always been interested in religious spaces, such as deserted chapels and small churches that haven't been in use in years
+21
Time lapse: This image shows what appears to be a deserted old movie theater with rows of folded chairs still in place
+21
Phantom music: The keys on this dusty old piano clearly have not been touched for many years
The most poignant and unnerving images in the series depict rooms that look as if their inhabitants had just left, with pillows thrown carelessly on the bed and bath towels still hanging from a railing over a tub.
Besides derelict old mansions ravaged by time and debris-strewn hallways, Feijen documented some more unusual spaces for his second book.
One image shows what appears to be a deserted old movie theater with rows of chairs still in place and vegetation peeking through open windows.
Another image shows a weathered roller coaster covered in a thick layer of grime in an abandoned amusement park, where the photographer also stumbled upon a water slide overflowing with plants and draining into a chipped blue-tile pool filled with standing rainwater.
Feijen has made a name for himself in the art world as a photographer specializing in Urban Exploration, or Urbex for short.
+21
Delusions of grandeur: This colonnaded ball room decked out in marble looks like it could be the site of a grand reception, if it weren't for the gaping hole in the roof
+21
Just push play: The feeling one gets from looking at Feijen's images is that someone had pressed the pause button on life
+21
Sacred spaces: Feijen's ideal shooting locations are ghost towns, insane asylums, dilapidated churches and castles frozen in time
+21
+21
Journey into the past: Looking at these image, one cannot help but think that the owners of these personal items have just stepped out for a minute and will be right back
+21
Water world: In his travels, Feijen has come upon this abandoned water park with a slide draining into an empty pool overgrown with vegetation
+21
Ghosts of the past: A water park that was once crowded with happy children and parents has been reconquered by nature
+21
Last stop: This roller coaster covered in a thick layer of grime has not heard children's terrified and joyful squeals in many years
For years, the Dutchman has been traveling the globe looking for boarded up buildings, decrepit chapels and family homes where everything is still in place.
In Frozen, one particularly unsettling and thought-provoking image shows dusty old jackets and a woman's black leather purse hanging from hooks in a foyer, and a pair of dirty slippers left next to a rusty bicycle waiting for their owner to come home.
The feeling one gets from looking at Feijen’s images is that someone had pressed the pause button on life.
His ideal shooting locations are ghost towns, long-shuttered insane asylums, dilapidated hotels and castles frozen in time and looking like at any moment their inhabitants will walk through the door and reclaim their personal space.
+21
Crumbling beauty: Even though Feijen's interiors are being eaten away by time itself, much architectural and aesthetic beauty remains
+21
Bleak: Some of the shooting locations look especially gloomy, like this image of what appears to be a deserted jail or a mental institution
+21
Eerie: This vast bedroom still bears the marks of its previous inhabitants, with white pillows resting on the two single beds joint together
+21
Cavernous: This dizzying image shows a view from the top overlooking multiple flights of concrete stairs
+21
Worse for wear: Time has not been kind to this humble hotel room where everything is covered in moss and debris
+21
Attention to detail: In this badly damaged bathroom towels are still hanging from a railing over a tub
While some of the interiors in Feijen’s photos have retained an air of grandeur, like the airy colonnaded ballroom adorned with marble, everything in sight has been touched by decay.
In 2010, Feijen ventured into the ultimate deserted location, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the Ukraine, where time stopped in 1986 after a deadly nuclear accident that resulted in a rapid mass evacuation.