Romain Veillon & Matt Emmett

Matt Emmet and Romain Veillon are documentary based photographers. Both of which are specialized in a practice called ‘urbex’ (meaning urban exploration). They travel around the world exploring man-made structures which are abandoned or hidden from the general public. Their work is both eerie and apocalyptic, however there is a few differences between them.

Matt Emmett’s work

Romain Veillon’s work

The first thing I want to compare, and what I believe is a significant difference in their work is the theme. Matt Emmetts work appears very modern, not so much the settings he is photographing as they are all old and abandoned, but the quality of his work. His images are quite under exposed but not to the extent where they are too dark. The colours and tones in his work are very sharp. However, Romain Veillon’s work on the other hand is very light. There is a fairy-tale aura about his work. This photo in particular (below) there appears to be abandoned fair rides. The merry go round may remind the viewer of their childhood, which is now over, it has been left abandoned. This also foreshadows the fact those memories are over.

I think Matt Emmet’s photographs are of seeking the beauty of these abandoned places, showing how he can photograph and edit the images in smart, tactical ways. However, Romain Veillon’s photographs are revealing the story behind these abandoned places.

Matt Emmett includes a lot of symmetry in his work, such as spirals, squares, circles ect. He uses the light to his advantage, creating patterns and repetitive shapes. Below is an example of when he has done this:

Emmett very clearly takes precaution with his images, he carefully choses which angle to take the image from, the lighting and composition are big elements when it comes to his work. Emmett’s photographs become very appealing to a viewers eye as there are regular patterns and motifs, not only just photographing abandoned places within nature, he also uses shape and symmetry to make his images more interesting.

On the other hand, Romain Veillon’s work is less tactical and just shows the scenes as they are. Veillon’s photos show abandoned buildings but sometimes with other objects in the image, objects of which could tell the viewer something about the building or setting. He is photographing to show viewers exactly how it has been left and why.

Both artists use natural lighting in their work as they are based in outdoor environments. However, Emmett’s work is very tonal and eerie, there’s darker colours in his photos, whereas Veillon’s work is softer; the colours and tones within his work are lighter.

Romain Veillon is a French photographer specialized in the visit of urban decay places, a practice called ‘urbex’. As an urban explorer he manages to catch the out-of-date, sometime post-apocalyptic, feeling in the air of those locations, where nature reasserts itself. Romain Veillon learnt his skills as an autodidact. He has photographed abandoned areas around Paris at first. Romain Veillon has extended his passion during trips through the world. With his photos Romain Veillon establishes a dialogue between past, present and future. Some of those places pursued their decay, other ones were demolished, vandalized or restored. Photography become the witness of a time, the optical record of a building. In Romain Veillon’s snapshots the viewer can project a fantasized story.

Abandoned Buildings

I am interested specifically in Veillon’s work on abandoned buildings. Similar to Matt Emmet’s work, he seeks abandoned and unseen place’s taking sort of abstract images of them to show the world.

During his explorations of abandoned places across Europe, he has stumbled upon enchanting architectures that have been left to decay for decades. In his latest book Green Urbex: The World Without Us, Veillon explored what the world would look like if the human race disappeared and nature took its course without any human interference.

-Mr Veillon wrote that he wants each photograph to tell a story and make people think about what had previously occurred at places that are now derelict and about what the world would look like if mankind disappeared.

Image Analysis

The image above is of a church in France that had been abandoned. While the tiled floor featured stones that had broken and greenery that filled the area, the magnificent architecture and detailed patterns carved along the walls remained intact, along with the colourful stained glass windows that were highly featured on religious buildings. The composition of the image is very sharp. Every wall or corner, every detail is aliened and arranged neatly. The lighting is natural and brightens up the image, although the building has been abandoned, it still appears to be pretty and partly put together.

Initially drawn into the world of abandoned photography, Matt became hooked on the fascinating back stories behind the locations he visited. Capturing and bringing these stories into peoples homes via his social channels has evolved into a seven year long project called ‘Forgotten Heritage’. Since he began he has photographed many diverse locations like abandoned farmsteads in the arctic circle, vast industrial remnants in northern Europe to crumbling villas and hospitals in Italy. The project has won several international photography awards to date and has been widely published.

Here is a mood board of Matt Emmett’s work. During his 3 year project he found himself trudging through debris, wading in water, spelunking in man-made caverns—all for the sake of creating images that celebrate the unique appeal of abandoned architecture.

The genre of Emmett’s work falls under documentary. He spent 3 years travelling around different countries recording the decaying, abandoned buildings as they have been left. His images inform people about the hidden corners of contemporary life that viewers weren’t aware of and haven’t come across.

This leads to why I chose to study Matt Emmett in relation to my project. Considering the themes ‘Observe, seek and challenge’ I think Emmett’s work comes underneath the theme of ‘Seek’ as he’s attempting to find these places to take photos of them and show to the world.

-For Emmett, traversing dangerous terrain is more than a matter of seeking thrills.

“These places that were once alive with sound and movement are now silent and still, but they are no less mesmerizing,” he says. “Immense and powerful beauty resides in forgotten places.”

Image analysis

I chose this image to analyse because I think it portrays the theme of ‘seek’ in many ways. The perspective in which the photo has been taken from implies Emmet is exploring the unknown, he is about to walk down the long tunnel path ahead seeking what is down there. This image is taken in natural lighting, the brightness of the image is coming from, what I’m guessing is, the sunlight seeping through the cracks of the broken ceiling. The image is saturated, yet decaying at the same time; green moss and plant life is growing over the rubble showing how nature is now taking over the area. This also proves this location has been abandoned as natural life is starting to grow and take over. This image is aesthetically pleasing to viewers, there is a dark vignette around the edges and the centre of the image (towards the end of the path) is very bright and amplified. Emmett has taken this photo carefully and has set up the composition of the image very precisely, edited or not, the midground of this image is also the brightest part of the image and this automatically creates a focal point in the image that’s going to catch a viewers eye. Raising questions such as, where is this? How did it end up like that? why has it been abandoned? Matt Emmett’s work has a mysterious feel to it as he seeks unknown locations . I am heavily inspired by Matt Emmett’s work, considering my chosen theme of the exam project, and I intend to create images of my own based around his work.

I chose this case study from the exam booklet, relating to my work.

I will be taking photos of different abandoned buildings/ bunkers/ old places and anything I think relates to my project of capturing derelict locations.

Here is a list of artists and their work that I am inspired by. I plan on taking photos similar to these:

Byron Sansivero

Michael Eastman

Robert Polidori

Observe, seek and challenge

Observe

-Notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant

Seek

-Attempt to find something, the desire to obtain or achieve (something).

Challenge

-A call to prove or justify something, to dispute the truth or validity of.

Exam paper pages 4&5

I read through this article and underlined quotes of information I thought was interesting and useful. This includes ideas for the theme of our project but also artists who I want to look into. The route of my idea started from the starting quote I picked out from this article. ‘The human desire to seek and explore the unknown has driven artists to look for fresh inspiration’. The words ‘explore the unknown’ instantly made me think of abandoned buildings, prehistoric places in Jersey, stone circles ect.

The theme of ‘seek’ has interested me the most as I feel there’s a lot of topics to explore under it, for example, religion, unknown places, childhood, caves, street art/ murals and so on. I think the main topics of my project will be abandoned buildings, showing how nature has taken over forgotten/rundown places and possibly secret locations that are less known, although this might be hard in Jersey as it’s a small island and most places have been explored. However, I am going to experiment with this and see what I come up with.

Mind map

I created a Mind map with a range of ideas on to pinpoint all the possible topics I could explore. This opened up my ideas more.

Mood board

I created a mood board for the general theme of ‘observe, seek, challenge’. It is made up of a number of images representing different themes such as identity, social public, places of worship, location/travel, abandoned buildings, discrimination, stereotypes, animals ect.