They sneak into remote places, among the rubble and broken glass, inside the skeletons of old factories, villas, and places of worship. They are the urbex photographers--an acronym for urban exploration--who combine the thrill of adventure with the contempt of danger and even a bit of recklessness.
The best among them have created photo projects that have also become occasions for denouncing the current degradation of many locations.
Among these is the “Ask the Dust” project by the French photographer Roman Veillon who has discovered abandoned sites by wandering all over Europe over the years and has collected the best shots in a book.
In Italy, we have many collectors of abandoned places that have revived these locations thanks to suggestive photographic narratives. For example, in his Alisei Memories, Davide Soliani explored ghostly locations trying to imagine what they were like when they were inhabited, lived, frequented.
They are all accompanied by a strong sense of melancholy, as the author himself explained, of loneliness, nostalgia, and the kind of emotions that only abandoned places can convey.
Xana
Among the most interesting realities in Italy, especially in Tuscany, there is also Esibisco laboratory, where experts in art, culture and design, social and environmental issues, and communication and design use the city as a frame and aim for the recovery of less experienced, forgotten spaces, even the most unthinkable.
The project was born from the mapping of the Florence area and is still in progress, with no deadline, continuously expandable.
It is impossible to remain impassive in front of the extraordinary shots of Eleonora Costi, who, in the all-Italian photo project "Abandoned H. Ell", portrayed the glory of villas, castles, hospitals, and churches abandoned by everyone, even by memories.
On the other hand, in Pavia, a project was conceived and created by the photographer Marcella Milani who found 16 abandoned areas within the territory then displayed them in an exhibition (which ended this summer) through 160 unpublished black and white photographs.
In Emilia Romagna, the Spazi Indecisi association based in Forlì has been experimenting with interventions to enhance abandoned locations since 2010, triggering urban regeneration processes through cultural devices.
It is a field of investigation and research for artists, photographers, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, and citizens, who connect the past, present, and future and propose an unusual itinerary for the widespread museum of abandonment.
Cursed, melancholy, and hypnotic is the beauty sought by the Dutch photographer Niki Feijen who, to realize his latest project, visited eight different European countries within a year and a half.
In the book "Frozen", we can find breathtaking images of places united by their spookiness, charm of abandonment, and desire to tell their story .
One of the major Italian exponents of Urban Exploration, Lorenzo Bocci, has instead given life to the project “In a Lifetime”, which displays shots taken in different corners of the world.
While the project of the Ancona artist, photographer, and designer Luca Blast Forlani, who gave birth to Intruders collected in the pages of a book released in 2011, is solely a Marche project.
There is also a contest, #edificidismessi, the Instagram hashtag that brings together thousands of artistic images to raise awareness and fascinate network users on urban reuse issues.
Lucilla
"The world we live in is but a partial representation of reality.": the motto launched by the 2018 Catalog by Karman “Sotto un’altra luce” (“Under another light”).
This title does not simply inaugurate the beginning of a new project--one of many that have seen Karman designers create iconic lighting design elements--but declares a new philosophy, and with it, new inspirations and visions.
The project “Sotto un’altra luce” ("Under another light") is concrete proof that every place--be it sumptuous and richly set up or bare and abandoned--can take on a totally different image and renew itself thanks to lighting, in perfect synergy between rendering technique and design.
The images in the catalog appear in all their originality and evocative making. Half-human and half-animal figures intent on devoting themselves to normal daily chores--sometimes in domestic settings, sometimes outdoors--accompanied by the bold style of Karman lamps.
Don’t Touch
We find Don’t Touch taking on the role of a harmless garden hedge, but renewed in essence and substance.
Matteo Ugolini designed this floor lamp and made it with white PVC rods, which echo the typical subtlety of slender branches, contained in a matt gray technopolymer base. The light makes its way through the stems and releases itself into the atmosphere.
Cell
We meet Cell in an equally curious scenario--by the pool on the sides of a "human-sized" doghouse. This is another lamp by Matteo Ugolini in which irony and symbolism intersect again and find new light.
It is a structure in shiny bronze metal wire in different sizes, with a profile characterized by thin lines but incredibly solid and resistant and a white linen lampshade that allows the light to diffuse dimly and lightly throughout the atmosphere.
Ali and Babà
By Matteo Ugolini, Ali and Babà floats elegantly and silently above the headboard of a bed and accompanies the reading of those who occupy it, while decorating the environment with simplicity and grace.
Minimal design, material structure, and resistant functional lighting: the white ceramic lampshade ensures that the light can be channeled downwards, thus offering intense directional brightness.
Ottavo
Ottavo welcomes us at the entrance of a splendid villa. It is impossible not to notice this curious floor lamp in white technopolymer, designed by Matteo Ugolini, because it is reminiscent in all respects of a funny garden gnome. However, it has an added gem: a small torch to illuminate what surrounds it. An evocative figure, directional light and outdoor decoration in a single solution.
Ugo Rilla
Ugo Rilla is certainly one of the most original lamps designed by Matteo Ugolini. Part of “Karman's Zoo”, this matt gray ceramic wall light depicts a ferocious gorilla intent on holding three small light bulbs with a dangerous bite. An original way of introducing light and design in any context: from the most eclectic to the most modern.
Sherwood and Robin
Finally, Sherwood and Robin: a suspension designed by Matteo Ugolini, whose design is inspired by one of the most beautiful Disney cartoons: Robin Hood, a real cult.
It is a white ceramic structure with floral details typical of woodland vegetation that can be enriched as desired with Robin: the inevitable accessory that completes this already adorned lamp.
For Karman, there are no forgotten places, free visual interest, abandoned.
There are only incomplete scenarios that lack that extra bit of style that can give them a new image and ensure that everything can take on a bolder character, and thus be seen in a different light.