by Editor Dusan Labuda 

„Cultural activity being focused on the exploration of closed, deteriorating and commonly inaccessible buildings and objects…“ – thus coldly comes the academic definition.

„Celebration of decay and poetry of ordinary with a breeze of melancholy and an excitement of lawlessness...“, boldly types the literary definition.

'Sacrifice' by Sebastien DEL GROSSO

All of us are born with a natural curiosity, our earliest interactions and experiments form our most essential understanding of the realms of our physical surroundings. Later as we are growing up, the curiosity diminishes, we become lazier, more commodious not being likely to lean out of the crowd. But some of us preserved some fragments of that gift. Since the earliest explorers up to today´s urbexers people have had a strong need for seeking and finding unknown and forgotten places. The passion to conquer has been bearing the cultural development throughout centuries. Especially Europeans have developed their explorer´s and conqueror´s identity, which have opened new approaches towards innovations. That´s what also urbex is about.

'Day light' by Denis Taraskin

Urbex is a call for the exploration of places beyond common reality, coming from the curiosity and the passion for adventure. It is full of the poetry of commonness. Discreet almost intimate investigation of frozen moments puts urbex into the meditative flow of the yoga of mind with the emphasis on the present moment and the celebration of minutiae.

'Stairway to Heaven' by JP. Zanotti

Urbexer is an explorer of the graveyard of human activities. The output is non-material, mysterious and uncopiable. The penetration into restricted areas and the records of decay reflects the need of a man to handle, to co-create and to bring to life.

'The Mosquito Theatre' by David Van Bael

'Is it Safe ?' by JP. Zanotti

…old abandoned buildings, they are silent, vulnerable, standing on the edge of disintegration. The nature is ready to overtake its place and to digest the human structure. For many people urbex is more about the exploration of their inner selves. Either their egos have lots of fascinating and trivial stories. Something is coming up and something is departing. Almost nothing is found in common relations.
Urbex is not primarily about photography, it is about the experience. Each object is a photograph itself. It just waits for being cropped by a viewfinder. The moment is the trigger, the nature makes an aperture and it starts with the highest numbers. The only thing a photographer must bring with him is his inner ISO and a viewfinder. And in the whimsicality of the decay he can walk through his own fairy-tale of details
mapping his own story.

'God Has Just Left the Building' by JP. Zanotti

'Iron Words (Ferree Parole)' by Paolo Giudici

Urbex is a crime of passion where desire is intertwisted with a childish curiosity. The aesthetics of decay brings a feeling of a special beauty and freedom and urbex is their exponent. It lets to experience authenticity as a source of meaning in an age when traditional values cannot provide it.

'Enlightment' by Niki Feijen

An urbexer does not break windows, he does not break padlocks, he moves freely paying respect to rules and laws. It´s magical to be where people have not been for a long time and to see how the nature re-sets its rule. A dying building makes sounds, as if it was breathing with a relief of yet seeing a visitor, one of the last. Some people are afraid of it. And some are fascinated.

'The forgotten Church' by Frank Noir

'Sanctuary' by Tom

'Oh … at least most of them woke up …' by AndreasS

'Requiem' by Sebastien DEL GROSSO

'Aged colors' by JP. Zanotti

 
'School days' by JP. Zanotti

'The Piano' by David Van Bael

'Haunted' by Sebastien DEL GROSSO