Thomas Jorion

Is there a key time in your childhood or teens when you discovered empty spaces? What were your feelings? What sort of effect did it produce upon you?

I have no specific date in mind because it gets lost in my childhood memories, but I think I must have been 12 or 13. With a bunch of school friends, we would skip secondary school during lunch time and shoot off to an old abandoned garage that was located about 100 metres away from our school. It was a huge building on two levels with a terrace. We were a bit naughty: smoking our first cigarettes, throwing objects at passers-by... we were discovering the dark side that a city shelters. We also met weird but fascinating characters until one day we got caught and expelled briefly from school. Later, with other friends, we explored our area by bike in search of houses, sewers, warehouses etc. Whatever we could find as long as it was abandoned and adventurous. I guess I enjoyed its transgressive aspect. It’s also when I felt total freedom and being invincible. These searches lasted for years as we were hugely bored at that time. Apart from being naughty, there was not much to do. I took a great delight exploring around: discovering a place, fantasising it, getting into it and finding treasures that were marked by time. I loved going back to these sites and understanding the effect of time on objects, buildings.

When did you decide to photograph these magical, ghostly, mad places… ? Photography took you there or these places led you to photography?

I was given a SLR in 1996-97 when I was 20-21. I didn’t intellectualise my photography path. I lived in a remote Parisian suburb with no idea of what the world of photography was about. To me, photography was a matter for the initiated and a universe totally inaccessible for people like me.

In regard of abandoned places, I had left my searches. I was into other stuff. In short, I had grown up. However, with a camera in my hands on a daily basis allowed to go back to my initial love that I got some sorf of bored… but I could still feel something vibrating within me at the thought of lost places. My second or third roll of film was dedicated to an abandoned castle I had noticed nearby my own place. Thanks to that camera, I reconnected with my inner pleasures and the shivers it triggers to feel an atmosphere and smell its recluse space. I was now documenting those spaces with a camera whereas before I was simply a passive voyeur. My new pursuit enthralled me straight away as I was playing with lights and other technical parameters. Some new constraints spiced up my new game.

So far away, so close

You studied law and worked in that environment. In your career, what was the moment when you clicked and decided to jump off the law boat in order to photograph abandoned places?

I have indeed a law degree but I soon realised that this environment wouldn’t be mine. I studied an extra year to become a law consultant. While I was working, I took pictures around as a hobby. As I felt more and more out place with a suit and a tie in a non creative place, photography gradually became my pressure valve. My week-ends were dedicated to my camera. Taking pictures of abandoned spaces was definitely what I had to do. Of course, I tried out other styles of photography, but my pleasure resided only in freezing these sites of memory.

How easy a change of career does operate when you have a secure career? Especially when you have to gain a new credibility in a complete new area?

I honestly didn’t ask myself that kind of question when I fully dedicated my time to photography in 2009. I had indeed doubts, but I was not under the impression I left a secured career. Allowing myself to leave a safety career was harder, but I was well supported by my near entourage. If you are rigorous and you give everything you have, then people sense it and you gain credibility that way. It’s a long distance race.

Clandestin / destin / destination

How do you become aware of these places In France or elsewhere? There is that Urbanex (Urban explorations) phenomenon. Are you part of it? If so, why do you choose to be known as opposed to be anonymous as all of them are?

I went through a few “eras”. First, there was no internet and no GPS. I was alone, searching, driving around for hours. Often, we find nothing. Then, internet was a good tool to get people with the same passion together. We were no more than 10 people in contact with each others. We tipped each others freely. We were a bunch of knowledgeable people in that field. Within years, it has become a real fashionable phenomenon. I guess it’s bound to change, but today I do not connect with that trend and whatever goes with it. For the time being, I keep searching as I used to. Internet has some new tools I can benefit from, so I can work on my own. I don’t need to be anonymous because I have nothing to hide. I have no desire to be someone else because the subject matter gives the thrill and I am who I am thanks to its driving force.

Exploration / danger / safety: open sky speleology

How do you know if the place you are going to is safe or if it bears potential danger? You travel alone and you have at times a local guide when you are abroad. What is the risk part and the safe part?

It is never possible to know how risky or not is a place as they are left in the open. There is always a risk of meeting dodgy people or the structure of a building itself. I take great care of evaluating the first moments: I know my limits and I am not prepared to break some barriers. Don’t we all take risks simply by leaving our own place?

How well prepared are you before the D-Day? How do you adapt on-site if there are any changes? Has it ever happened that you couldn’t take pictures?

I just make sure I have my photographic material and I am well equipped in case of rain. Changes are inevitable but I adapt and tend to be philosophical about it. What else can I do if I fly for 12 hours, take a train, a car, a boat and the building I wanted to photograph has been taken down two weeks before. It’s hard... but there are plenty of them. The buildings that let you photograph them are even more intense. At the end of the day, there is a balance on a long term.

What type of photographic material do you use?

I use an Ebony camera (Japan) – a large framed optical chamber and colours negs. I have great pleasure to manipulate and adjust my camera according to the place. It’s a very special “toy” for which I have an immense respect. In the same manner I trust that steam locomotive drivers had with their engine. They thought their machine had a soul. It produces images slightly different from other cameras available on the market. A connoisseur eye can distinguish its particularity.

The colour neg is also a source of pleasure but can be frustrating as it can have its tantrums because of technical parameters. I quite like saying it has its imperfections just like human beings have.

“Pickin' up good vibrations... giving me the excitations”

When you are standing in an abandoned place, what kind of part of imagination operates within yourself? Do you explore the space like a timid animal or you immerse yourself into the atmosphere?

Each place triggers various emotions. On some rare occasions, I remain indifferent, but I am usually touched by what I see and photograph. Whatever emotion runs through me, I try to melt within the place in order to give what I see at its best. Sometimes, I have been so overwhelmed by places that I failed to photograph properly: because I spent too much time contemplating and visiting around with a knot in my throat instead of taking pictures. You can’t afford mistakes with my kind of camera and going back to France with fewer images is no good news... Generally, I explore these places on my own. Concentration and immersion is deeper when alone.

Conflict, time, photography - Theatre of war crumbs…

Some photographers work on “after the war” scenery: they go to a scene slightly after a conflict ended in order to photograph destruction, abandoned spaces as the exhibition shows at Tate Modern’s Conflict, Time, Photography. Are you drawn by such type of photography?

I have never taken “after the war” pictures. I am not drawn to that. Visually speaking, they might look similar but I prefer to photograph what is linked to the evolution of eras, whether in relation to economical crises or not, but I can’t take pictures of a place that is linked to human suffering due to a savage war.

Aestheticism – ephemeral and imperfection…

Your work is highly aesthetic. Could you explain your relation to beauty through the “ugly”? What keeps attracting you? Freezing time on a fainting beauty?

I am touched by a new generation of beauty taking place rather than a fainting or evaporating beauty. Objects, buildings are altered and undergo a new aesthetic that is unique. This is what I see. I think I am quite sensitive to a sort of “Wasi-sabi” beauty. The beauty within time erosion: an object a bit broken that has lived through periods. I find depth in those objects and they have much more interest than a marketed product that has a proper function.

In regard of the historical value of a building – especially in your Forgotten Palaces series – are you more aware of our existence triviality? What is your relation to a materialistic life?

Forgotten Palaces brings up two specific aspects: one that is a form of nostalgia and the other one that is human vanity.

Nostalgia as I can’t help thinking of these wealthy families who lived in these palaces and were the pioneers of modern comfort that we all know today. Having access to modern tools (cameras, new entertainments, flying by plane), they have stamped the previous century with their writings, photos, adventures and their exploits. It has happened I came across some of their “happy life” photos while on their premises and I have imagined their lives, I dream a bit.

Vanity because however wealthy you are today, we will all end up in the same place in the same conditions. Whatever you take firmly for granted is only a sand castle. I am not being dark, but I observe simply. If we accept the reality, it helps to live with oneself and among others.

Pied-à-terre

You also make a living as a commercial photographer. Who commissions you and who buys your photos?

Architects who like my vision of building commission me for their new creations. However, I do sell my photos in galleries in Paris, Lille and Berlin.

Concrete spaces versus verdant spaces

Urban, urbanisation, no man’s land, concrete, nature, human being over nature, nature ruling the world. Where do you feel home?

I’m home everywhere. I have a preference for concrete space though in which I find beauty, abstract, unique colours and shapes. I am sensitive to nature because it reclaims everything. Our civilisation that is 5000 or 6000 year old is simply a dust bit comparing on earth scale that is 250 millions year old. Nature is the big winner, so I have to adapt.

French photographer born in 1976, Thomas Jorion lives in Paris and travels the world to achieve his singular and timeless landscapes. Self-taught, he creates his photographs in natural light using an analogue large format 4x5'' camera. He captures places in ruins or abandoned, and allows us to rediscover and to imagine their past glory in a bygone era.

In 2013, La Martinière editions published “Silencio”, a work that combines several of his series: Silencio, The other America, Konbini, The Quest of the soviets...

From 2013 to 2016, Thomas Jorion has been focusing his photographic exploration on the former french colonies; this new series lead to a second book published by La Martinière “Vestiges d'empire” and presented on the occasion of his participation in Paris Photo.

Web www.thomasjorion.com