Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds Book Review @nakamura193 @thamesandhudson
Summary: Brilliant and beautiful best sums up Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds.
5
Brilliant and beautifu
Visiting abandoned buildings is not only a fascinating adventure but it provides a valuable insight into its forgotten history. Unfortunately for most, many of these places are out of our reach, however Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds provides us home-based mortals with a way of exploring these lost worlds from the comfort of our own home – because I’m not a fan of exploring some of the more dangerous areas of Pripyat which still has strong levels of radiation in certain parts of this abandoned city.
Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds is put together by the legendary Urban Explorer, Ikumi Nakamura (aka Tommy “Urbex”) who shares her amazing photos, the history of these places and also her adventures which provides an amazing snapshot into these abandoned destinations. Keen gamers will also know that Ikumi Nakamura is a Japanese video game artist and director and is best known for her work on titles such as The Evil Within (1&2) and Ghostwire: Tokyo. If you have played these games and from the places she shares in this book, it’s easy to see where some of these inspirations have come. Fascinating to say the least.
I also love the ‘`uniform” of Tommy which is straight out of a video game with her iconic mask and black clothes as we follow this real-world video-game-type character celebrate the meaning and power of urban exploration as she adventures to three levels… err… continents. The book is also introduced by Liam Wong, a photographer and video game designer who provides a valuable insight into urban exploration and these abandoned sites that are now being claimed by nature and sometimes vandalism. Additionally, there is a great introduction by Ikumi herself who discusses her motivation in visiting these long lost destinations and how she hunted for some of these places through pictures, including instilling her passion of exploration with her daughter. Like a video game, an urban explorer plots their own experience through these uncharted and abandoned territories – well said indeed.
This hardcover is also beautifully presented and its layout, the use of orange text and Manga inspired flip outs really adds to the immersion factor that Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds offers to the reader. Photos are also fantastic and Ikumi has a knack of capturing these places perfectly, from its lost colours to using natural light that helps bring these places to life. One such place is a Methodist Church in Pennsylvania USA and although this building is now decaying, the majesty of what it once was is still there, including some of the items left behind like sheet music which is perfectly captured.
From abandoned trains in the United States to the legendary (and quite spooky) Island of Dolls in Mexico to the abandoned Nara Dreamland amusement park in Japan with an intact roller coaster side, the locales of this book are truly amazing. There are even some really strange places like the Hokkaido Sex museum – yes this place is real which was a very unexpected travel destination for this read. The Power Plant IM located Charleroi Belgium is another visually impressive place with its giant hole in the ground that looks like something out of a video game. It’s like looking into the pits of hell itself!
Final Thoughts?
Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds is a beautifully presented hardcover book that captures the lost places of our modern world that are slowly being claimed by nature. Furthermore it is well written with stunning images that really makes this book an engaging read from start to finish. Brilliant and beautiful best sums up Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and other Forgotten Worlds.
Please visit https://thamesandhudson.com.au/product/project-urbex-adventures-in-ghost-towns-wastelands-and-other-forgotten-worlds/ for more information
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