A movement away from attending church has been ongoing for several decades now and the number of churches, chapels, and other religious buildings that are closing their doors every year is increasing. In wales, for example, the average Sunday attendance to church has fallen to below one percent of the population.
The British have lost faith in religion much faster than many areas of the world with the most recent survey stating that Britain appeared one of the most irreligious countries on earth, with only 30% calling themselves “religious”.
In this series entitled “domum dei” (simply meaning house of god in latin), I take a look at just a small handful of the forgotten and derelict churches, chapels and religious buildings across Europe.
– Limited Editions of 25 on plexiglass and 15 on paper. A selection of my top selling works are now available in my print store. Your favorite not inside there? Get in touch via email.
The beautiful former Gothic chapel in the south of France that was over-grown for many a year - this is looking South.
The same chapel - but this time we look towards the North. Being on that balcony allows the image to contain more of that ceiling.
This beautiful colour pallet sits on the walls of a small chapel in Wales.
This decaying building was once a theater before converting into a church.
A small chapel destroyed in an earthquake in the 2000s, with interesting gold hues. Nature has started claiming back the space - I had to wait until late in the day to capture this work, waiting for the sun casting nasty shades onto the scene to move.
A lovely grey chapel that I shot on a boiling hot day in Portugal in 2016. A few years after this was created the side wall collapsed after a huge fire at the monastery in which this resides - it looks like the space will never be rescued, which is a shame.
A detailed and pretty chapel at the rear of a huge mansion in Italy.
A small but detailed former chapel in a large Italian city.
The stunning color on the inside of a religious school chapel in Italy.
The stunning roof is what is left sitting inside this former chapel in Wales.
A stunning rainbow coloured chapel in France. We weren't sure that we would get in originally on a freezing cold morning.
After two failed attempts in 2014 & 2015, we finally made it inside this amazing former church in Belgium.
The stunning stairs that lead up to this huge and dramatic abandoned monastery chapel in France.
A beautiful chapel in rural Italy, that I visited during golden hour in April 2018. The chapel was hit by an earthquake.
This speaker plinth inside a huge derelict church in Belgium - a challenge to get inside, but totally worth it as the light was superb.
Inside that dramatic chapel - this is both ornate and huge! Climbing up on the balcony took some doing.
Another beautiful Italian chapel, this one has since been cleared out - but I loved the tones and light here.
A former religious school in rural Northern Italy, ornate ceilings and details were spread throughout.
This is was my first series looking at the subject of derelict architecture. Initially shooting in the United Kingdom, before moving into Europe.
My second abandoned architecture series, shot in locations much further spread across Europe, from Poland and France to Italy and of course the UK.
In this 2017 series I looked at ornate abandoned architecture across Europe specifically palaces, ballrooms or halls in the UK, Portugal and Romania.
Lebanon and Beirut’s architecture in particular, was heavily influenced by Paris and there are still amazing examples of this.
“Uninhabited” is an ongoing project which will take around four years to complete, due to the slowing down of the world with the global pandemic.
Concealed represents my movements throughout 2018 through to 2020, looking behind closed doors in search of hidden architecture.