When I picked up urban exploration as a hobby almost six years ago, I was just another couch potato. I wasn’t very adventurous (aside from hiking by myself or with friends every other weekend in the mountains of Kansai, but that’s not really risk-taking) and the last time I had a LSR in my hand had been as a child, about 20 or 25 years prior; long before digital. For some reason I bought a DSLR and started exploring, and since nobody wrote about urbex in Kansai I started this blog, for quite a while read only by a few people other than friends and family. And then the blog picked up momentum, comments were overwhelmingly positive – some liked the writing, the fact that I was actually writing about the places and my experiences there, but the majority seemed to like the photos, despite the fact that I don’t crop or do any kind of post-production. The world was drowning in tonemapped HDR urbex photos while I couldn’t care less, as always minding my own business. Six years and something like 50000 photos later I am still baffled by the overwhelmingly positive feedback, especially about my photos – which is almost surreal to me, since I never had any aspirations to be a (hobby) photographer, but they keep turning out well; good enough for readers to leave nice comments, good enough for commercial sites to pay a small licensing fee every once in a while… good enough for the mayor of my hometown to offer me free space to present a selection of photos to the general public. (In Japan you usually have to rent space at a gallery, average cost between 4000 and 20000 Yen per day, depending on the size and the location. Some bars give up wall space for free if you guarantee a certain amount of guests on opening night.)
“Verlassen und vergessen – Moderne Ruinen in Japan” (“Abandoned and Forgotten – Modern Ruins in Japan”) is my first solo exhibition – a selection of 27 photos; 25 of them already published on Abandoned Kansai, one on the *Facebook page of Abandoned Kansai* and one premiering at the exhibition. I was very tempted to show more new photos, but I wanted to avoid revealing too many locations yet to be published here, on the blog.
The exhibition takes place at the city hall in Bürstadt, Germany – Rathausstraße 2; that’s about 45 minutes south of Frankfurt. It’s accessible free of charge on Mondays / Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. till August 26th 2015. Please leave a comment in the guest book if you can make it! 🙂
As I assume most of you won’t be able to see the exhibition live, I compiled the photos (minus the temporarily exclusive one) in the gallery at the end of the article. They were taken at the following locations – heavy spoilers ahead from this point on, in case you want to see the exhibition yourself!
Abandoned Dynamite Mine
Bibai Bio Center
Big Mountain Pachinko
F# Elementary School
Gunkanjima
Hachijo Royal Hotel
Hachijo Spa Hotel
Igosu 108
Ikeshima
Katashima Training School
Landslide Mining Apartments
Landslide School
Matsuo Mine
Nara Dreamland
Nichitsu Mining Town
Okayama Hospital Haikyo
Osarizawa Mine
Red Bridge
Subterranean Shrine
Tenkaen
Wakayama Beach Hotel
Western Village
Since I am very much interested in your feedback, I am curious to find out what you think of the selection. Did your favorite photo make it or did I miss one that deserved to be exhibited? Should I have left one or more of them out? And what do you think of the compilation as a whole?
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Abandoned Kansai 
In my opinion, many of us enjoy the unpretentious quality of the images. Yet the pictures are artistically framed and exposed. The surprising appearance of out of context objects, like the doll wearing the gasmask, adds a touch of the surreal. Some of my favorites are of the exterior cover shots of multi-storey buildings also Ferris wheels at theme parks. I also like to see abandoned shopping centers’ interiors with decrepit escalators, food service courts, and dead potted trees.
I think the examples of images in this post will work well in your exhibition. Good luck.
Thanks a lot!
Congratulations, Florian – hope the exhibition goes well!
Thanks, Sue – local press was very kind… and I left a guest book for comments, so I am curious to find out what people thought. 🙂
Congratulations!!!!!
Thanks!
congratz 😉 selection of pics is great,but personally i would pick some different pic of Gunkanjima,but that might be just me 😀
Sadly my amount of decent Gunkanjima pictures is limited as I only did the tourist tour.
i see
Omedetougozaimasu!!
Thanks! 🙂
Congratulations! 😀
Thanks a lot!
Huhu, ich verfolge deinen Blog schon seit ca. einem Jahr. Ich finde es sehr interessant und so langsam weckst du mein Interesse an Urbex und auch Photografie. Nur leider fehlt mir das nötige KIeingeld für eine Kamera. Irgendwann werd’ ich aber wohl auch mal damit anfangen. 😛
Jedenfalls find’ ich es ziemlich toll, dass es eine Ausstellung gibt und obendrein ist sie auch noch in der Nähe von Frankfurt. Ich selbst lebe in der Nähe von Frankfurt und werde denke mal der Ausstellung einen kleinen Besuch abstatten. ^_^
Liebe Grüße
Elena
Hi Elena,
vielen Dank für den netten Kommentar! Eine teure Kamera braucht es nicht wirklich – einfach das Smartphone verwenden und aus der Not eine Tugend machen. 🙂
Falls du es schaffst, dir die Ausstellung anzusehen, hinterlasse doch bitte eine kurze Nachricht im Gästebuch!
Alles Liebe,
Florian
Ein Versuch wäre es wert, danke für den Tipp. 🙂
Und klar werde ich was ins Gästebuch schreiben, wenn ich die Ausstellung besuche. 🙂
Liebe Grüße,
Elena
Congratulations on your first exhibition! May it lead to many more.
Thanks a lot, Claire – there are dozens of potential other places, but I am afraid that will require canvassing…