Eerie Abandoned Communist-Era Monuments by Jan Kempenaers (24 pictures)
Before years of fighting broke the former Yugoslavia into a half-dozen nations, it was home to many monuments form the biggest names in Easter European architecture. These incredible Soviet-chic buildings were tourist attractions through much of the 80s, before the fall of communism.
In 2006, Belgian photographer Jan Kempenaers revisited these architectural wonders, long since abandoned, and his photos reveal the beauty that still exists, even in their current condition. Maybe the former Yugoslav republics should advertise the buildings as locations for retro science fiction filmmakers, since they look like something out of Logan’s Run.
Jan Kempenaers (BE°1968) lives in Antwerp and works in Ghent. He studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (BE) and the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (NL). He has been affiliated with the School of Arts Ghent since 2006. Since the beginning of the 90s Kempenaers has been photographing urban & natural landscapes and in 2012 he completed a PhD in the visual arts. He is currently working on a new project centered abstract photography.
