Abandoned places are this photographer’s treasure

The photographs in Timothy Hannem's book Urbex: 50 Lieux Secrets et Abandonnés en France, are haunting, nostalgic and fascinating.

His passion for discovering abandoned places began at school. "There was an abandoned house next to our school and I wanted to get inside, because I thought it would be an adventure, like a film," he said. "And then it became a passion."

He equated exploring abandoned buildings is to time travel, to entering a forgotten world. "You learn things about local history."

He said that people often contact him having recognised one of the places in his photographs. "They send me photos of the building when it was in use, tell me when they lived or worked or visited the place, and sometimes we meet up and they show me round a second time, describing its past. So I get a very personal history of these places."

He said that he recognises that the places he photographs belong to someone. But either the owners do not have the money to repair them, live far away, do not care about them, or the building is owned by an assortment of people who cannot agree about the building's future. So, to protect his discoveries, he doesn't divulge their precise locations.

And when people contact him with updated information, he updates his website Glauque Land so that people do not go looking for them.

"It's a passion which means I meet a lot of people, get a lot of mail suggesting more abandoned places, go off visiting and finding houses, exploring small towns and villages in France." It is an alternative form of tourism, he says, and although he recognises that the near future, most of these places in France will either have been demolished or sold, he said he would continue to search them out.