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PHOTOXPLORERS - Coming to Bravo Thursday November 5th at 7:30!
From the producers of "Behind the Camera" and "Crimes of Fashion" comes a new television series photoXplorers. photoXplorers follows an adventurous band of guerilla photographers/urban adventurers as they slip behind the barricades to capture haunting images of abandoned buildings and structures from around the world. Forgotten industrial mega-structures, castles and arenas of public gathering appear as post-modern ghost towns. The images captured by this talented and charismatic group are beautiful, original and eerily alive. The team is a rare guerrilla art force like none other. While fully exploiting the optical potential of high definition, photoXplorers is quite possibly, the most deliberately “visual” television series offered today. photoXplorers invites the viewers to crawl under the barbed wire fences, slip behind the plywood barricades and marvel at the “beauty of decay”. Locations explored and photographed include: Coal Mine, Belgium: Hasard de Charette, Belgium. This coal mine, located in the heart of the town of Cheratte, dates back to the 1860's, and was one of the numerous mines in the Liège coal basin. The main buildings consists of a tall, castle-like winding tower over shaft #1, which is connected to two similar looking wings, which held washrooms and other related facilities. A low laying building in the center of the facility served as a lamp room and charging area. The remains of a tower can be seen on the hill behind the mine, which sits over the shaft "Puits Hognée," and was used to transport waste materials. The imposing concrete winding tower sits over shaft #3, which is the deepest shaft at this facility (480 meters). The mine has been closed since 1977, and has remained undisturbed for the most part. It has been designated as a Belgian protected landmark. Sanatorium, France: Sanitorium Fernand Bezancon (Le Château de Franconville) is set in a breathtakingly beautiful location just 30 minutes north of Paris. The 19th century saw the construction of many castles all around France, often under the wish of fortunate families. This one is located in a quiet town in the northern suburbs of Paris. After the demolition of the first castle built here in 1775, the Duc de Massa ordered the construction of a new castle in 1884 - with a theatre and an orangery. But the vocation of the site changed in 1924 to become a tuberculous hospital until being abandoned in 1992. It may see new life again as a golf resort. Castle, Belgium: During the French Revolution, the family of the Count of Liedekerke-Beaufort left the feudal castle Château de Vêves and lived at a nearby farm. After the Revolution, this opulent residence was built as a summer home for the family in 1866 by the English architect Milner, although he died before seeing its completion. The Château de Mirinda, as it was called then, was owned and used by the family except when it was briefly occupied by the Nazis in World War II. In 1958, it was used by the SNCB (a Belgian national rail company) as a home for the railwaymen's children and became Château de Noisy. It was abandoned in 1991 and has been falling into ruins. Industrial Factory, Germany: The Sinteranlage is in Duisburg - this huge factory was abandoned many years ago. Sintering is a method for making objects from powder, by heating the material until its particles adhere to each other. The whole plant is covered in the dark brown dust. The final product are pellets (small balls), which are added to the ore in the blast furnace. Sintering plants are a result of the process optimization, which made blast furnaces in the course of the years more productive and environmental better. While some of the machines are taken from the plant, many are still inside. Rusty stairs take us many floors up and give us great views over the plant. School/Church, Germany: In the year 1913 the Franciscans established here a home in which they took care to the disabled. In the 1930s they were overwhelmed with processes by the Nazis, and finally this caused the economic bankruptcy of this comunity. Starting from 1940 the Nazis built so called "Kinderfachabteilungen", which were killing institutions and allocators for the distribution to other institutions. Such a KFA was installed in the rear part of the buildings and 97 children died here (a total of 512 people died here between 1939 and 1943). In 1952 the Franciscans got back their former property, but sold this to the federal government in 1955, who rented the ground to the British Rhine Army until 1991. Power Plant, Luxembourg: Central Thermique was used to produce electricity from the highly toxic furnace gas of the neighboring furnaces. The electricity was intended for domestic and industrial use. Build in 1951, the Central Thermique has been closed since 1997, just after the last furnace was shut down. |
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