Ghostly photos show abandoned town being reclaimed by desert sand
In Melbourne, Australia, an old home filled with sand is allowing visitors to travel to an eerie corner of Africa without leaving the country.
The installation is the work of Australian photographer Emma McEvoy, who is using the space to show images taken during a trip to Kolmanskop, a town in Nambia that has been relinquished to the desert. A favourite of photographers, the once wealthy German mining town is said to have been abandoned in the mid-1950s, its ornate houses and ballrooms giving way to sand that curves around doors and walls.
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McEvoy had wanted to visit Kolmanskop all her life, she told Mashable Australia in an email, and hoped to convey the town's impact in the way her photos were exhibited. "When actually visiting, I had such an emotional reaction to the place and decided the series needed to be exhibited in a space that really told the story of this abandoned mining town being reclaimed by the desert," she said.
That's when McEvoy decided to fill an abandoned Fitzroy share house with sand for one weekend. The developers in charge of the property let her bring in the sand, as long as she promised to remove it afterwards. "It was me and a bunch of my mates who helped wheelbarrow loads and loads of sand into the house," she said.
McEvoy said the public's reaction to the installation had been amazing. "I've had thousands of people come through and everyone has absolutely loved the whole experience ... people loved being able to take their shoes off and walk through the sand while looking at art."
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Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
