Photographer Andre Govia captures haunting photos of forgotten places

If you ever wondered what the world would look like after an apocalypse, feast your eyes on the eerie photographs of Andre Govia. The Englishman has visited 800 locations to capture the haunting scenes from forgotten hospitals, schools and hotels. Govia’s work features in his new book “Abandoned Planet.”

What sparked your imagination to create your book “Abandoned Planet?”

I am an explorer by heart and was looking around abandoned buildings for six years before I even had the idea of getting a camera to document the abandoned buildings. I was given a camera as a gift and it all started from there.

Do you think that the photos could reflect an apocalyptic world?

I would say that if all buildings and other locations were left without maintenance or protection for long periods of time, then yes an apocalyptic world would look like this without question. The interest that we all have with what happens with the change of time and the decay that takes hold within that time could be a mix of my photos and the TV show “The Walking Dead” – minus the zombies.​

Were you not creeped out by hanging out in those spooky places?

I am not so much into the whole ghost thing, but one hotel I once explored very much bothered me and the other members of the crew to a point that we were uneasy with our surroundings. We won’t be going back in a hurry, that’s for sure.​

Urban exploration, or urbex, is a popular pursuit among youngsters these days. What does its future hold?

Urban exploration has been around for years and we all looked at an old house or factory when we were kids. The difference now is that we have a name for the activity. There will always be people interested in abandoned locations or being somewhere that they should not be.​