Vines creep through cracks in a concrete roof. Ornate country mansions become covered in thick layers of foliage. Minimalist homes become canvasses for encroaching wildlife.
Abandoned to disuse, nature slowly reclaims man-made spaces. This inevitable process is captured in a series of breathtaking photos which showcase the slow but unstoppable process of nature.
Among the stunning pictures in the new book, Naturalia: Reclaimed by Nature, are shots of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the radioactive no man’s land left in the wake of the catastrophic nuclear accident that shook Pripyat, Ukraine, in 1986.
Other snaps reveal a once idyllic hotel in Croatia overtaken by wildlife. In another a Cuban theater appears on the brink of total collapse while a third illustrates how bright green moss carpeted the inside of a concrete cooling tower.
Photographer Jonathan Jimenez took the photos as he travelled the world, from Italy to Bulgaria and Cuba. They will be published in March this year by CarpetBombingCulture.
‘If we disappeared tomorrow, in just a hundred years the great cities of the world would look like this,’ said Jonathan.
‘Once endangered species thriving, roots and branches, leaves and flowers thronging the streets, the poisons in the air would fade away and new ecosystems arise.
‘There is a small part of all of us that longs to see modern things swallowed up by writhing branches and reclaimed by the earth.
‘We turned the earth inside out. Now we’re just waiting for her to spit us out. Every civilization in human history has fallen, ours will too, and if you look in the right places you can see it starting to happen.’
Ornate country mansions, luxury designer homes, churches, farms, factories, train stations, planes, cars, tanks and trains are all captured in the vivid processes of reclamation.
The astonishing shots, like this one of a derelict hotel in Croatia, were taken by photographer Jonathan Jimenez as he traveled across the globe
Jimenez tracked down abandoned man-made spaces, like this futuristic greenhouse in Germany, in order to illustrate nature’s glacial but unstoppable encroachment on society
His journey took him to fascinating locations, such as this abandoned Cuban theater, where foliage clings to seats where an audience once would have sat
A number of the photos found in the collection were taken in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, abandoned for more than 30 years after it was flooded with high levels of radiation. Since being evacuated, this administrative building lay untouched and greenery began to infiltrate
The photos have been collected into a book entitled Naturalia: Reclaimed by Nature which will be published in March this year by CarpetBombingCulture
A drained swimming pool lies eerily empty in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Jimenez’s search for abandoned locations led him to the infamous radioactive zone
A gargantuan cooling tower in Belgium is now an incubation chamber for all kinds of moss greenery
Jimenez found nature, like this lone tree in a hotel in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, even in the most hostile of man-made environments
A Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, used by the Bulgarian military, lies abandoned in a field. It is unclear how long it has lay there for
During his visit to Belgium, Jimenez entered a hulking cooling tower where he found its concrete floor coated with a thin, slimy layer of moss
A bar in Croatia, once filled with raucous revelers, now stands empty, filled only with leafy foliage creeping up bar stools
This French Warehouse has been completely filled with thick vines, which dominate the floor space which would have once been covered with stacked crates
Jimenez found his way to remote and apparently inaccessible places like this silo in Belgium, which may have been used to store grain or other agricultural produce
A gorgeous French castle, abandoned to the elements, lies in ruin. Many of Jimenez’s subjects have seen better days
Green against blue: A Croatian skyline is seen from a abandoned hotel from which Jimenez took a number of photos, all of which highlight the vibrant green of encroaching wildlife
Another castle, this time in Serbia, has been overtaken by lush vines which have scaled the building’s Greek-style pillars
A view from the cockpit: The photographer’s travels in Croatia led him to this abandoned plane. He took a shot inside, capturing its rusted steering equipment in all its historic glory