Jonk -
Man and Nature (Series)
DESCRIPTION
I chose to only use pictures from my last trip in Taiwan in December 2017. They are related to industry, leisure, commerce, transport and residential. The goal with this diverse selection is to show that Nature does not do things by halves, she takes back everything.
This series questions about the place of Man on our planet Earth, about his relation with Nature. Man builds, for his peculiar own reasons. Man abandons, for others peculiar own reasons. Nature does not care about those reasons. But one thing is for sure, she is disturbed in her evolution. When Man leaves, she comes back. She can guzzle a truck like quicksand (Picture 4) or fill up all the space inside a factory warehouse (1). She can transform a concert venue into a cinema set, perfect for the next Indiana Jones (2)! Give her more time, and she will imprison a mansion with her strong roots (5). The next step? Collapse and burying.
What will then be left of what Man built? Nothing. A souvenir. A shot a curious adventurer would have made there some years before.
What happens if we enlarge this reasoning to our whole civilization?
AUTHOR
Jonk travels the world looking for abandoned places.
Today, he has visited more than one thousands of them in more than forty countries on four continents.
With time, his interest has focused on what appeared to him to be the strongest in this vast subject of abandonment: Nature taking over. It is poetic, even magic, to see this Nature retaking what used to be hers, reintegrating through broken windows, cracks on the walls, spaces built by Man and then neglected, until sometimes guzzling them up entirely.
In March 2018, he released the book Naturalia on the topic and currently works on volume II.
In June 2018, he quits his job in the finance to fully dedicate himself to this project.
Since, two other books have been released and his work has been featured in prestigious paper publications (Der Spiegel, Corriere della Sera…) as well as on prestigious web platforms (National Geographic, Smithsonian, ArchDaily, AD, Lonely Planet…). It has been part of many group shows across the world (Paris, Rome, Athens, Budapest, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Seoul, Tokyo…) as well as several solo shows in Paris.
Several personal exhibitions of Naturalia are planned for 2019 and 2020.
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