ROMAIN VEILLON

Romain VEILLON is a self-taught artist passionate about photography and travelling. He began to photograph at the age of 15 to engrave in memory his discoveries. Gradually he concentrates more on the artistic approach to the photography, choosing as his favorite subject the aesthetics of abandoned places. Fascinated by this notion of abandonment, he carefully choses each destination to capture these unreal sensations caused by forgotten places. Romain VEILLON considers these areas devoid by human beings as a kind of a modern “Memento Mori”. In these photographs the emptiness is filled with history where the light plays an essential role, taking the place of the disappeared man. 

At the age of 35 Romain VEILLON accomplished already more than 15 series. Each of his works shows a particular approach to the chosen area. The quality of his work is based on the technical perfection in photography and on the choice of the places that were rarely represented before. First of all, the artist selects the destination of the next journey, than he carefully elaborates each shot to transmit to the spectators the magnetic ambiance of these time capsules. As someone sensitive to the order of things established by the nature itself, the photographer aims to conserve the original composition of the captured place. Romain VEILLON photographs the abandoned spaces all over the world. Sometimes he choses to work with the famous monuments as BUZLUDZHA – the neglected building of the Communist Party in Bulgaria, but he tends as well to capture the places that are hidden from the public eye. As a real lover of the enigma and the fragile atmosphere of these spaces, Romain VEILLON avoid to reveal the exact location of his artistic excursions. That’s his way to protect these places from the vandalism. 

Each serie invites us to discover a personal story of a place, which reflects at the same time a common history of our society.

The famous prison on the St. Joseph Island (French Guiana), presented in the series “PAPILLON”, is one of those places full of stories. Vegetation, which invades the tiny cells of former prisoners, reinforces the stifling atmosphere that reigned here in the first half of the nineteenth century. This serie shows us not only the tragic and short passages of people who used to be incarcerated here, but also one of the most shameful pages in the history of humankind.  

Through his lens, Romain VEILLON makes us explore the poetry of abandoned places in the four corners of the world. His photographs are both moments of contemplation and escape.