Forbidden Places: Exploring Our Abandoned Heritage (Jonglez photo books)

by Sylvain Margaine, David Margaine (Primary Contributor)

Seek out a marine graveyard in Brittany, a spectacular former coal mine inGermany s Ruhr basin, an abandoned hospital complex in Poland, ghostlyplaster figures installed at a dilapidated church in the Czech Republic, closed-down prisons and asylums, deserted factories... Since the resounding success of his two earlier volumes, published in 2009and 2013, Sylvain Margaine still travels the world in search of theseforbidden places, forgotten by everyone. An exceptional photographic report."

Genres: Photography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2015

Reviews

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

French photographer Sylvain Margaine’s Forbidden Places collections published in 2014 and 2015 are both melancholy and whimsical, sharing evocative images of abandoned architecture mostly across Europe (though a few in North America) coupled with quirky poetry written from the perspectives of these lonely places by Margaine’s brother David. This strange accompaniment serves the collection well, complementing Margaine's focus on the “absurdity of a society that prefers to build new rather than trying to reclaim the rare gems of the past.” These elaborate and beautiful structures, like the Bulgarian Communist Party Headquarters, the old Stella Brewery in Leuven, Netherlands, and even a kind of proto mall, the Diurni Venezia in Milan show how our world has changed over the century, and even how these places can continue to serve the present.

I continue these thoughts at Harris' Tome Corner discussing Dead Malls: Nostalgia in the Ruins.