Empty cities

Emptiness is fascinating. It is strange. Pictures of the places without people afford to contemplate of environment. Everything is well known and familiar to us. But abandoned places make us rethink of trivial things. Those pictures let us see what we do not pay much attention to. And it may even seem that we have never been to those places even though the depicted image is round the corner. This feeling is quite difficult to describe. But it is really unusual.

So today I would like to share the most interesting photo projects devoted to empty places.

An American photographer Greg Girard is attracted to Asia. Thus most of his projects are devoted to Asian cities. Nowadays he lives and works in Shanghai. His series Phantom Shanghai depicts unattractive and unsightly views of Shanghai. This city is amazing indeed. But Girard shows us down side of the city. It is dirty and unpleasant to visit it. Anyway it attracts. It seems like the modernization passed by the places Girard pictures. “I found that by photographing not the people but the spaces, it revealed as much if not more about how people lived”.

An Irish photographer Tristan Hutchinson in his project Midwest: What It Means Me Now shares his feelings and emotions of the American Midwest. He traveled around several states but one could hardly see the difference between them. They are all the same. The same buildings, the same landscapes, the same feelings. It seems like there is nothing special about these places. To tell the truth his vision and style reminds me the works of an American photographer William Eggleston.

A Canadian photographer Chris Gergley in the series Queen City depicts a remote Canadian town Regina. The images were taken on a sunny day. But looking at them I have a strange feeling as if people have left the town once and forever and would never come back again. These pictures remind me the views of ghost cities of Canada and the States.

A German photographer Matthias Heiderich also prefers take pictures of the abandoned places. Thus the series Studie Zwei depicts urban objects so that you have a feeling they are simply abstract. His pictures are minimalistic. Heiderich is attracted to colors and shapes of the urban spaces. These places look like they are not for living. Winter Berlin series depicts the capital under the snow as if it has been sleeping. The atmosphere of dream and calm prevails.