- Hard cover – 256 pages
- Publisher: Editions Tempus Fugit
- Author: Jonk
- Language: English (French version: Le Monde Perdu)
- Size: 30.2cm x 21.6cm
- ISBN: 978-2-9576450-6-0
Released September 28th 2023.
Jonk is one of the most reputed photographers of abandoned places in the world. For the last ten years, he has travelled the planet, tracking them down. Through his passion for Urbex, he hopes to show how they are slowly transformed before finally disappearing. The impact of passing time is the central theme of the book.
This quest for cracked walls, rusty iron and flaky paint has taken him across more than fifty countries. Today, Jonk gives us the very best of his urban explorations.
The book is prefaced by Denis Brogniart.
A word from the author:
In 2013 I visited my first abandoned place in the suburbs of Paris. At the time, I mainly photographed street art. This is what prompted me to enter this former customs building in Pantin, invested by the cream of Parisian graffiti. I went back several times before it was rehabilitated. This first visit was a revelation. The intense atmosphere that emanated from this place, the feeling of being where I had no right to be, the magnificent paintings reserved for a few adventurers, a path opened up that day.
I immediately looked for other similar places to find graffiti. Then, very quickly, graffiti or not, I started traveling to photograph these forgotten places. At the beginning the East and the North of France, then Belgium. I still remember my first “wasteland” trip abroad: Germany in 2014. A few days alone with already some fears including a first real contact with security guards. It was also almost my first encounter with the police… I knew that this journey would call for many others. Quickly arrived Eastern Europe, then the Balkans. Then, Japan, Taiwan… Later Namibia, Argentina… Passionate, I don’t do things by halves. In ten years, I have traveled four continents, fifty countries and a number of places that I no longer count since it exceeded one thousand five hundred.
These abandoned places fascinate me. I find in them an unequalled aesthetic and what about the questions they ask about our passage on Earth, about what we leave behind.
Ten years after Pantin, and for me who is a book lover, a publication was needed to celebrate this milestone.
This book has a story arc that relates to the aesthetic I was talking about above: decay. This decadence, this impact of time which has passed and which has left its mark on things represents what I find magnificent to observe and photograph in these places. I’m looking for time capsules. Places on which only time has had an impact, without human intervention.
These places out of time, where it is as if suspended, attract me like nothing else. Every image in this book exudes rusty iron, peeling paint, dust…
This work has twenty-two chapters which are either by major themes – industrial, medical, religious, etc. – either subjects dear to the author in this forgotten universe – textures, perspectives, abstract shapes, etc. Many photos from this project have never been published.
Here after, a picture from each chapter:
Press review:
« Des images saisissantes » OpenEye
« Photographe en âme et en action depuis son enfance, Jonk pratique l’exploration urbaine: faisant fi de la notion de propriété privée ou de zones interdites, il confronte nos regards à des vestiges dévorés par le temps qui passe. Ses clichés, dont le grain reste d’une richesse rare, étonnent en changeant la vétusté en espace, le suranné en surprenante actualité. Sillonnant le monde à la recherche de décombres méconnus, l’artiste offre une (belle) voix à ces espaces, témoins muets de souvenirs oubliés de tous. Et tandis que les ruines se débarrassent, image après image, de leurs réputations peu recommandables, nos regards rêveurs se laissent à imaginer ceux qui, avant ces fissures et ce silence, s’épanouissaient en ces lieux, ramenés à la vie par ce créatif parisien. » Fluctuart
« Des paysages à couper le souffle. Les clichés poétiques et presque métaphysiques de Jonk racontent le passage du temps et nous appellent à davantage de respect face à cette nature toute puissante. » France Télévisions
« Jonk s’érige comme l’un des photographes de sites délaissés les plus éminents à l’échelle mondiale, ayant consacré une décennie à l’exploration méticuleuse de la planète à la recherche de ces lieux délaissés. Dans cette œuvre magistrale, Jonk nous dévoile le florilège ultime de ses explorations urbaines, capturant l’esthétique poignante de ces espaces oubliés. La préface de Denis Brogniart offre un éclairage préliminaire à cette immersion visuelle dans l’éphémère, tout en magnifiant la démarche artistique de Jonk. » Beware
« Jonk, archéologue des temps modernes » Chasseur d’images
« Esthétique de la dégradation et poétique de la ruine sont le fil rouge de ses images. » L’Oeil de l’Info
« Sublimer ce qui est abandonné par l’Homme, ressusciter des lieux voués à l’oubli, réveiller, réanimer même des trésors à bout de souffle, telle est la mission, la vocation plutôt de Jonk,
Sherlock Holmes des friches urbaines. Ces vestiges tombés en désuétude s’offrent à son objectif avec grâce et désir, comme pour entamer une nouvelle vie. » Oui
Columns on Télérama, Artistik Rezo, ArchDaily, OpenEye, l’œil de la photographie…
Buy the book here.