Our Fascination for Lost Places
What makes lost places so intriguing, the images so interesting? This is a question I kept thinking about quite a while after visiting the town of Livet. Located in the French Alpes, Livet has definitely seen its best days. The majority of houses are abandoned, worn down by time. I barely saw anybody on the streets leaving me with the feeling that the whole village was lacking of life.
Despite being such a uninviting and cold place, I really did enjoy photographing Livet. From a photography perspective, every corner provided a new motive, another abandoned alleyway or run-down building presenting itself as my next motive. The melting snow and the thick layer of cloud casted a depressing light upon my surroundings, adding a final, gloomy touch to the scenery.
Revisiting Livet while editing my series, I noticed that the images I took in Livet were strikingly different to those I usually take of urban areas. Compared my shots from Berlin, in which I try to present a visually pleasing and artistic view on the city, my shots ended up being more on the documentary side. Many of them seem to tell a story by providing a rare glimpse into a life that has been lived long in the past. Time seemed to have stopped in Livet, the past being conserved for us .
Being confronted with bad condition of a town that once most likely has been buzzing with life, then quickly brought me back to reality. Every crack and broken window caused questions about what happened: Why did the majority of people abandon Livet? What caused the inhabitants to retrieve their love and care for a place they once build themselves? Were there people fighting to maintain the keep the lively spirits of the past alive?
These questions and the ghostly atmosphere left me in melancholic state. Suddenly, the river through Livet reminded me of time, the ever-streaming current of the water saying that time cannot be stopped and that our existence is after all transient. After 100 years, these buildings remind us of a past that seems so far away, and yet was once part of everyday life for those who walked these streets before us.
