About

Specialized in the urban environment, my work is based on the assumption that the real frontier lands, the most difficult to explore, are the cities where we live. As an urban designer at daytime and urban explorer at night, I try to unravel the secrets of the man-made world of the 21st century. I use photography as my tool to document what I find, to tell a story. I’m not the kind of photographer who is happy shooting beautiful, romantic places or tourist destinations. I am more intrigued by places that people find unattractive, or never bothered to enjoy in the first place. With my photography, I want to show how gritty, dark and dirty places can be appealing too, in their own way. I also find it interesting to take photos of a well-known place in a different way, so people are put on the wrong track. That’s why I often try to find a higher point of view, like a rooftop, to shoot a familiar spot from an unexpected angle. I feel satisfied when because of my work, people start appreciating the city they live in more. Urban exploring is usually defined as visiting lost and abandoned places like old houses and factories. However, for me urban exploring is more about discovering the secrets of cities, especially man-made areas that people tend to avoid or simply don’t know the existence of. Those places are usually hidden, but also quite often right in the middle of everything; places like technical rooms, rooftops, tunnels or sewers. Sometimes those places have been abandoned for ages, but sometimes they are still in use, as if they are part of the engine room of the city. As it turned out, there are other people crazy enough to venture into those rough and sometimes dangerous places. Interestingly, most of them are photographers too and their goal is to capture those locations before they are lost forever. I started following those urban explorers to document their adventures. As I dived deeper and deeper into the secrets of the city, I became one of them. The people on my photos are usually other explorers, seemingly out of place in that big and hostile space, as if they don't belong there, questioning our relationship with the city as tiny, insignificant inhabitants. Urban photography opened my eyes to the world around me. It made me step out of my comfort zone and helped me become a more open-minded person. I’ve always been curious about everything, but photography made me adventurous too. The moment I discovered the existence of those wondrous locations, I wanted to experience them in real-life. In a way, these places became my hide-out of ordinary life. When you are in a tunnel, there are no lights or sounds coming down, and yet you still sense the presence of the city above, soft and faded. On the contrary, when you are high up on a rooftop, it’s like you experience the city 100 times more: the wide views, the noises, the lights: they make you feel so alive. Photography is only half of the story: the experience of actually being in that place is what makes it so great to be an urban explorer. I usually work together with other photographers and urban explorers. That’s a very important part of what photography means to me: to explore the world together with like-minded people, inspire each other, create stories together and make friends for life. Although my main goal remains to document contemporary cities, I've also worked with multiple clients, among which: Adobe, Sony, Thalys, as well as architectural firms, municipalities, media agencies, hotels and clothing brands.