Ik mocht het waarom van mijn liefde voor het verval vertellen.Dit is te lezen in De Randkrant - Maandblad over de Vlaamse Rand · oktober 2016 · jaar 20 · #07
About Helena Toscano
This was 2015
This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2015, so a big thank you to all the visitors and followers. See you in 2016
Here's an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Meet & Greet
Il m'arrive de vous rencontrer sur la route. Et pour le plaisir et le souvenir on prend la pose.Sometimes I meet you on the road. And for fun and memories we strike the pose.
Artist of the week on internet
I was honored in 2013 to have been elected artist of the week on a photo page that basically talks about urban exploration. I was surprised by this statement, I deeply thank Blind Owl and Jim Potter for the appreciation.
Urban Exploration
"Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints"
It's been a while since I have posted an article so here I am.
I'll talk about "Urban Exploration". A photographic practice that I love.
It is unusual, but known by all photographers. Sometimes dangerous but really interesting. Interesting to walk in what was once a hospital, a castle, a school, a factory, asylum, sanatorium, laboratory, swimming pool, amusement park and so on ... .
This photographic practice was born around 1995 and the term urban exploration was invented, or at least was popularized by Jeff Chapman aka Ninjalicious. He contributed to the integration of the Internet as one of the vectors of urbex.
Urban exploration, urbex for short, is an activity to visit places built by man, abandoned, generally denied access or at least hidden or difficult to access.
Belgium has a significant abandoned heritage. Belgium hosts many activists, the middle of the local exploration in recent years knows a real success. Several world-famous explorers come to Belgium .Following the decline of heavy industry, some regions such as Liège and the Charleroi are conducive to industrial discoveries. The main Belgian explorers approach the subject in several ways, some focusing on photography, others rather Heritage and see the latest exploration as a sport.
Unfortunately the boom of the 2000s brought an adverse effect for any part of the scene. Non- sensitized people engage in exploration and disseminate the location of preserved places on the internet. Disclosing the locality of the site has caused vandalism, fires and devastation. Belgian scene is mainly driven by Sylvain . Other names are valid in terms of respect for heritage is none other than Tchorski.
I love photography and adventure. Urban exploration is a photographic practice that allows me to travel in time and place. Time to discover and place to explore abandoned and mysterious places, walk into black corridors, find stories to be imaged and feel my heart beat at every noise.
!IMPORTANT! Physical risks associated with this activity are several types, falling through a rotten floor, falling rocks, structures collapse. The risks associated with water, drowning. Risks prescence of toxic gases. Risk of explosion and exposure to asbestos in some degraded sites is also taken into account.
Visit my personal BLOG where I talk about the different sites that I have already explored.
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Powerstation / France
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Racecourse / France
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Powerstation / Italy
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Castle / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned School / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Bunker / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Farmhouse / Luxemburg
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Manor / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned House / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned House / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Abandoned Factory / Belgium
© Helena Toscano / Self-portret / Abandoned Factory / Belgium
The beginning
"Leave nothing than footsteps, take nothing than photographies"
Je devais avoir 7 ou 8 ans lorsque j'ai fait pour la première fois de l'exploration. Avec mon grand-père ont partait souvent à l'aventure et un jour nous sommes tombés sur une ruine au milieu d'un bois. Un bâtiment qui semblait être une maison de chasseur. Il ne restait pas grand chose, mais ce fut amusant de pénétrer cette bâtisse.
Plus tard à l'âge de 15 ans, avec quelques membres de mon groupe de danse, alors que nous cherchions un lieu pour répéter nos chorégraphies, nous nous sommes aventuré dans une usine abandonnée. Il y avait des grands hangars, mais aussi les bureaux. Nous avons trouver des vieux ordinateurs, des chaises. Tout avait était vandalisé. Nous avons utilisé ce lieu quelques fois, jusqu'au jour ou un voisin nous a dénoncé. Heureusement pour nous, la police n'a pas fait d'histoires.
Je garde de ces explorations un beau souvenir et sans aucun doute le virus déclencheur de mon intérêt vers ces lieux oubliés.
Dans les années 1990 j'acquis un caméscope et un appareil photo. Depuis l'appareil photo est devenu mon compagnon de route.
L'exploration urbaine (urbex) que j'ai débuté en tant que photographe en 2010 me fait découvrir chaque jour des magnifiques lieux abandonnées par l'homme, des lieux qui racontent de bien belles histoires.
I was about 7 or 8 years old when I made my first exploration. With my grandfather one day we across a ruin in the middle of a wood. A building that looked like a hunter house. There was noting more inside, but it was fun to enter this building.
Later at the age of 15, with some members of my dance group while we were looking for a place to repeat our choreographies, we ventured into an abandoned factory. There were large sheds, but also offices. We find old computers, chairs. Everything was vandalized. We used this place a few times, until the day a neighbor denounced us. Fortunately for us, the police did not make a fuss.
I keep of these explorations beautiful souvenirs. In the 90s I get a camcorder and a camera. Since the camera has become my best companion.
Urban Exploration (urbex) I started as a photographer in 2010, I discover every day beautiful places abandoned by man, places that tell some wonderful stories.
