Romain Veillon: Ask the Dust

Romain Veillon

Hardcover | 25.1 x 2 x 25.1 cm | 224 pp

Carpet Bombing Culture | 2016 | 9781908211361

Ask the Dust is an epic journey through ruins from the genteel parlours of long dead haute bourgeoisie families to the sparse industrial beauty of mid-century factories as they quietly rust away. Like a vivid daydream, you find yourself absorbed in wordless reveries from page to page. Ask the Dust is a feast of urban ruin photography, executed in gorgeous full colour, full page spreads framed by the overview of the young French adventurer behind the camera.

Romain Veillon, adventurer and urban explorer, seeks out the things that progress has left behind and bring them back to the rest of us in his hauntingly beautiful images. The edge of the world is now found in the crumbling edifices left behind by the endless expansion of the built environment.

This collection of images is as disturbing and hypnotic as any requiem should be - and it offers an exquisite moment of escape from a culture increasingly experienced as a lifetime of frenetic activity divorced from any chance for reflection. Discover Epecuen - the town that drowned, the real life Atlantis that was under water for over 25 years and Kolmanskop - the abandoned diamond ghost town that was swallowed by sand. This spectacular and captivating photographic record of European abandonment is combined with thought provoking commentary to powerful effect.