Two years ago, I went to Japan to photograph derelict buildings around the country.
From love hotels to theme parks or decayed houses, I explored another part of this incredible country. I could tell so many stories that lie behind these images, but I prefer to let your imagination do the work. Here are the most particular places I had the chance to photograph.
If you'd like to see more of my photographs, check out my previous post here on Bored Panda.
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Abandoned Love Hotel
Generally, the first step (and the most important) is to find the location you want to photograph! Spending a lot of time on the internet and making researches online is the basis. Of course, real-life meetings with friends, networks, or strangers can sometimes lead to amazing discoveries; but most of the time, it is from online papers or articles with little clues that lead from time to time to the best discoveries. Asking city halls and officials can also be a very reliable source of information. The trip over to the place might be the most boring part of the process, I want to travel light so I only bring the essentials with me, and my usual 14-24 lense to help me capture what I want. Then, you need to plan and organize a trip to photograph several of those locations. Finding a discreet way in and not being seen is also important. Then, once inside, I try to explore the place and impregnate myself with the atmosphere and its history. I want my photographs to reflect what I felt there while wandering in the building. Moreover, I always capture the place with the maximum light that I can to put some more life into the picture.
Abandoned Hotel Overgrown By Nature
Abandoned Priest House
I always try to focus when I'm photographing a building or a room so that my picture is really close already to the result I want. I spend only a little editing and processing my photographs normally. If I can spend not more than 5 minutes on it, that means I did most of the work previously handling the light which is, in my opinion, the most important. I improve the contrast and the temperature if needed; the symmetry of the picture but above all, I make sure the light is ok in the dark part of the image for example. Of course, sometimes, a ray of sun or some other problems can appear and I spend more time on it.
Abandoned Onsen In An Hotel
Abandoned Snakes Laboratory
Concerning my work, it's not really about coming up with new ideas, but more about finding new places or themes to photograph! I am classical in my approach of photographing derelict places even if I'm always up for trying new ideas once exploring them. But finding untouched castles for example and traveling to them is the most challenging part of my job, especially in the covid era with all the uncertainty that it brings to us. The creative block then would be the plane tickets getting canceled because a country is closing its borders!
Abandoned Theme Park
Abandoned Vintage Hotel
As for the future of my work, it's blurry for now! I am very proud to have published my second book "Green Urbex: the world without us" two months ago with "Albin Michel" and I am currently promoting it. But at the same time, I am still shooting for a possible volume 2 in the future. I have numerous trips abroad I would love to do soon, and I am working on that. An exhibition should also happen in Paris this year with my latest photographs. More importantly, I will pursue the search for hidden treasures any time I can to find forgotten treasures and capture them!
Abandoned School
Abandoned Strip Club
Abandoned Doctor House
Abandoned Hotel Room
Abandoned Theme Park
A Derelict Sect In The Mountains
Abandoned Hotel
Derelict Ocher Factory
The Western Village
Abandoned Pachinko Game
I have been to those in Japan and the activity was like Vegas Slots on steroids.
The Western Village
This is a 1/3 scale model of Mount Rushmore in Japan's abandoned Western Village Theme Park, which closed about 15 years ago.
Abandoned Doctor Cabinet
Abandoned Hotel
The Western Village
The guy in the centre, his trousers are down - What exactly has been going on here?!
Amazing that you were even able to find those places. I live in Japan and wouldn’t know where to look for places like these.
These places would be amazing to see in person. All the abandoned places around me are gutted by drug addicts, boarded up, or burnt down, no where you would feel save going to check out.
Same here, in Vancouver BC Canada. Druggies/homeless population here is crazy huge and they steal everything in sight
Load More Replies...Very beautiful and sad and interesting. Would love to learn more about the places and the history as to why they are abandoned
Its amazing how respectful Japanese culture is. In most of the rest of the world these beautiful places would have been salvaged, looted or just plain vandalized.
How on earth do you find these places? To think that all of this is in Japan. It blows my mind. :³
I love Japan!! This was really cool to see. Can't wait to go back in 2022!
Awesome! I have a frustrated dream of visting abandoned places in Japan (specially mountain villages and temples/shrines) :') Seeing these pictures is soothing to my soul. Great pics, thanks for sahring!
Actually I don’t understand. In school I learnt that Japan has very little usable land, that is land where you can build something - because there are a lot of mountains. So the regions where you can build a house or something are densely populated. Would they leave unused and abanoned buildings to rot away like that? I would sooner think they can’t wait to tear it down and use the land again to build something new. Or do I see this totally wrong?
That's an interesting point! I wonder if some of it has to do with a dangerous or unstable land/building location or if it would be dangerous to first have to remove all that old structure because of toxic things that would also have to be cleaned up. Maybe they can't be. Sometimes the toxins in the paints or pipes, etc would be disrupted and enter into the land and pollute it. Maybe due to how things are built now, these locations are so remote it wouldn't do anyone any good to build or make them new. Interesting q!
Load More Replies...These places would be amazing to see in person. All the abandoned places around me are gutted by drug addicts, boarded up, or burnt down, no where you would feel save going to check out.
Same here, in Vancouver BC Canada. Druggies/homeless population here is crazy huge and they steal everything in sight
Load More Replies...Very beautiful and sad and interesting. Would love to learn more about the places and the history as to why they are abandoned
Its amazing how respectful Japanese culture is. In most of the rest of the world these beautiful places would have been salvaged, looted or just plain vandalized.
How on earth do you find these places? To think that all of this is in Japan. It blows my mind. :³
I love Japan!! This was really cool to see. Can't wait to go back in 2022!
Awesome! I have a frustrated dream of visting abandoned places in Japan (specially mountain villages and temples/shrines) :') Seeing these pictures is soothing to my soul. Great pics, thanks for sahring!
Actually I don’t understand. In school I learnt that Japan has very little usable land, that is land where you can build something - because there are a lot of mountains. So the regions where you can build a house or something are densely populated. Would they leave unused and abanoned buildings to rot away like that? I would sooner think they can’t wait to tear it down and use the land again to build something new. Or do I see this totally wrong?
That's an interesting point! I wonder if some of it has to do with a dangerous or unstable land/building location or if it would be dangerous to first have to remove all that old structure because of toxic things that would also have to be cleaned up. Maybe they can't be. Sometimes the toxins in the paints or pipes, etc would be disrupted and enter into the land and pollute it. Maybe due to how things are built now, these locations are so remote it wouldn't do anyone any good to build or make them new. Interesting q!
Load More Replies...