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.

Powerplant M

Unfortunately they are busy emptying and this plant will be demolished soon. This location has caused since it closed in 2008 many problems of any kind! Drugs, theft, squateurs, crime and suicide! This place is highly degraded and insecure! The security has been strengthened and any unauthorized person will be arrested! Image published with the courtesy of Ets. Wanty that I am very grateful for the collaboration and this visit.

Bowling "Mill"

Formerly stood a wooden mill. At the start of the First World War in August 1914, the Germans set him on fire. The wooden windmill stood first in Heist-op-den-Berg and was there known as the Platte Bosmolen. He dated from 1843 and moved in 1882 to 1883.The present brick was built around 1920. The roof and wings, from the Everberg mill, were placed around 1925 on the hull. After World War II he was still in use, but the beginning of 1950, uses electricity as driving force.

After producing his last sacks of flour in 1954, the site was converted in the HORECA sector projects in different strengths: dancing, brothel and finally bowling.

The name of the bowling comes simply because he is set at the foot of a mill. The building is a historical monument since 1994.

It seems that the mechanics of the mill still works perfectly!

Restoration seems to be spoken since 2005, but the building is totally forgotten.

Exploration : November 2013 Status : badly deteriorated and difficult access. Future : The site is for sale, but no trace of restoration.

Maison "Ter Heide"

I stumbled on this spot and I do not have much information about these three houses.

"Salve Mater"

The story of the Salve Mater began in the early 1900s. In 1958 the chief doctors decided to stop, electro shocks, such as treatment. They were the first in Europe to use Tofranil (antidepressant). Early 1970s, all the psychiatric part of ISM was transferred to the University Hospital of Woluwe-St-Lambert, and the buildings sold to the Catholic University of Louvain, which left some abandoned building, and occupies some other as administrative buildings.

The last patients left the pavilion St. Paul in 2007.

The whole site Salve Mater, is renovated and is transformed into a complex of office-appartment accommodation.

To be check : It seems that Paul Verlaine had lived for a time in the psychiatric clinic, shortly after the death of Arthur Rimbaud.

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

Little School

Despite petitions and the refusal of residents, teachers and supporters, this small nursery school closed finaly in 2011. The reason in 2008 for the closing was purely financial. The costs in the school for almost 36 children was irresponsible in light of the financial problems the city faced. All children were placed in another school! Update 2014 : demolished

Piscine "Du Mosq"

"Doel"

Doel is threatened with complete demolition due to the future enlargement of the harbour of Antwerp - Belgium. This has seen many people having to sell their homes to the development corporation of that enlargement. Many historical buildings will be destroyed. In 1999, residents who wish can be expropriated. May 1, 2003 no longer live in the center of Doel 214 of 645 people who were enrolled at 20 January 1998.  Since then, if the number of official population continued to decline, the actual number has gradually increased. This is due to small part by the arrival of new tenants in some homes expropriated and for the most part by the fact that squatters had occupied the vacant buildings. This state of affairs has long been tolerated by the Company owns the vacant houses and by the municipality of Beveren.

In 2006, the media was interested in Doel due to the large number of new squatters. This conspired to spread the idea that Doel had to some extent turned into a lawless area , where you could easily take ownership of a vacant unit , which , in turn , had the effect of attract new squatters and cause a wave of burglaries. On 22 March 2006, the mayor of Beveren announced that police checks have increased in Doel and that zero tolerance is now in force and any illegal activity suppressed. Some squatters however require to regularize their situation.

I visited Doel the first time in 2011 and almost all the houses were empty, except for a few. Often thieves had already passed steal what was portable! The rest of meubilair was destroyed! The windows were all broken, walls tagged, doors ripped off! Pure and simple vandalism committed by whomever! I went back for the second time in 2013 and it is a real ghost town! All the houses were close by the municipality to prevent squatters and vandalism! There are only facades with works of art.

Some people remain in Doel, the factor still delivers the mail, one bus drop villagersand the only cafe remains open to accommodate people and I fear my next trip to Doel be to discover a huge industrial complex.

"DOEL ... moet blijven"

"Le Shelt"

I do not know much about this place, but in any case this coal plant has been empty for quite a few years. We have a little fun to stage and shoot my brother.

Le Crachoir

The pool closed permanently in 2001 to the public. The years that followed was fierce squabbling about a possible new destination or a total breakdown. The nickname "Le Crachoir" used in the urbex world is due to the spittoons in the wall that were used for the discharge of chlorine.

Thurn & Taxi - Brussels

Abandoned Sncb railwaystation. Place : Thurn & Taxi – Brussels – Belgium Explored on November 2010

Station Baulers

Une de mes premières explorations en tant que photographe.Eerste exploratie als fotograaf First exploration.November 2010

Prison V

Prison V - Flemish Brabant - Belgium - 18th century - closed in 1974 and refurbished in Hotel and various clubs since 2009. A small part of the old prison is visible 1 times per year during the Heritage Day in September.

Sanatorium D

Un vieux spot qui aujourd'hui est devenu la plaine de jeu des air-softeurs du coin. Le camion des pompiers quand à lui est toujours bien là malgré les années.

Parmentier

There is nothing left, machinery and equipment have gradually disappeared, leaving only a huge open space that is a playground for vandalism. It is advised not to venture alone.

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.