Video: "Desert Indoors": a city swallowed by the desert
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Once the Spanish photographer Alvaro Sanchez-Montañes came across an article in a magazine about the diamond rush that once reigned in Namibia. He was especially struck by the photograph of Kolmanskop, once a thriving place, now a ghost town. The magazine article gave too little information, and Alvaro promised himself that one day he would go to this mysterious place himself and see everything with his own eyes. The result of an interesting trip was a series of photographs "Desert Indoors".
Kolmanskop was founded in the middle of the Namib Desert in 1908, when the first gem was discovered among the sands. People flocked to these places, and in a short period of time, residential buildings, a hospital, a stadium, a theater, a school and even a casino were built next to the diamond mine. However, Kolmanskop's prosperity did not last long: diamonds became less and less, a veil seemed to fall from the eyes of the city's inhabitants, and no one wanted to live in the middle of the desert. After the end of the First World War, the population of Kolmanskop began to decline, and in 1954 the last inhabitants left the city.
Over the past 50 years, Kolmanskop has become a ghost town. The desert ruled to its fullest in the empty houses, filling the places where people once lived and worked with sand. Unsurprisingly, Kolmanskop - abandoned and quiet, reminiscent of a fantastic vision or mirage - inspired Alvaro Sanchez-Montanes to create a magnificent series of photographs.
More photos from the "Desert Indoors" series can be seen on the official website Alvaro Sancheza-Montanes.
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