Romain Veillon is a photographer from Paris who travels around the world seeking inspiration in the decadent esthetics of abandoned places and deteriorated buildings. The spooky pictures he makes attract the attention of internet uses for their sublime beauty and unique atmosphere of chaos and decay.
One of his latest trips was to Japan where he shot a theme park in the city of Nara called ‘Dreamland’. It was built in 1961 as an answer to the popular Disneyland, but closed in 2006 as visitor numbers dried up. For ten years the park was abandoned, but lately demolition works have begun. Romain Veillon decided to take a final chance to see the park untouched in its ghostly allure.
Sputnik Japan asked the photographer for an exclusive interview when he returned home.
Veillon said that he had been planning his trip to Japan for five years, and Nara Dreamland was not the only spot he intended to see. He made a list of as many as 25 places, but the abandoned park was his obvious priority.
“I had seen photos of the place online before I came there, and I understood that it was exactly what I needed – a mystical place with ruins in a post-apocalyptic style,” Veillon said.
He feels that he was very lucky to get into this park, as it is a security facility now. While he was filming there he met not a single person in the whole day.
“This deserted place is full of mystery, as if you are out of time and space. Taking a plunge into the past in my mind I imagined this park 20 years ago when it was full of visitors and children were playing and laughing all over there,” Veillon said.
He said that he found many interesting spots in Japan but he does not plan filming such places as the ghost-cities in Fukushima Prefecture, struck by the NPP triple meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
“First of all, I believe visiting such places is dangerous. I also think that making photos would be disrespectful to the people who lived there. They left their homes not so long ago and probably they don’t want their belongings scattered in panic all around their homes to end up online,” Veillon said.
The photographer said that he finds such places like nuclear exclusion areas too stereotypical. For this reason he will not shoot Chernobyl either. But he said that he plans to come to Russia one day to film its mysterious spots too.
Romain Veillon was one of Nara Dreamland’s last ever visitors. Now that the park has been sold, demolition work will go into full swing. Photos of half-deconstructed roller-coasters and broken pavilions can be easily found on social media. Although these pictures look impressive too, Veillon was the last one to film the park living his mysterious life.
