The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Sept 2015 back issue
by Ambroise Tézenas
The fascination we have as humans with our ability to do evil, witness the
evidence of horror and stare fixedly at photographic, filmic or artefacts
connected with death, is at heart of the phenomenon known as ‘Dark
Tourism’. These images are about much more than tourism and the visiting
of such sites, they challenge the nature of our behaviour, our history and our
societies’ relationship with evil and mortality. They are a testament to our
past, to our inability to move beyond it and our curious relationship with
tragedy and death.
J.J. Lennon
Ambroise Tézenas undertook a long investigation from the Oradour-sur-
Glane massacre of 1944 in France to the ruins left by the 2008 earthquake
in Sichuan Province, China, Ambroise Tézenas travels through the 20th
century by way of Cambodia, Rwanda, Ukraine, and Lebanon. These are
sites developed for tourism and linked to death, assassination, incarceration,
mass killing or tragedy. Yet Dark Tourism is not a new phenomenon and
similar sites have attracted human interest for many years. From the
gladiatorial combats of ancient Rome through to attendance at public
executions in London of the 1600s, it seems that death and disaster have
maintained a lasting appeal.
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – Poland
KL Auschwitz I, Main gate.
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – Poland
Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II – Birkenau).
Oradour-sur-Glane, martyr village – France
Main street.
Oradour-sur-Glane, martyr village – France
Fairground.
The JFK Assassination Trail – USA
The Sixth Floor Museum and the grounds of Dealey Plaza.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – Cambodia
The ground floor had been divided by clumsily bricked partitions into small cells of .80m x 2.00m where each prisoner
was caged.
Karostas Cietums – Latvia
Behind Bars: The Show.
Karostas Cietums – Latvia
Extreme night.
Escape from the USSR – Latvia
Spy Game.
Trip to Chernobyl – Ukraine
The empty ghost town of Pripyat. The central town hotel ‘Polessye.’
Trip to Chernobyl – Ukraine
Special observation platform with the view of the ‘Sarkofag (sarcophagus)’ site.
Rwanda Genocide Memorial Tour – Rwanda
Bisesero genocide memorial site.
Rwanda Genocide Memorial Tour - Rwanda
Bisesero genocide memorial site.
Mleeta Resistance Tourist Landmark – Lebanon
The Abyss: A structural scenic art that is built on a 3000 m2 area, materializing the Zionist defeat.
Mleeta Resistance Tourist Landmark – Lebanon
The Abyss: A structural scenic art that is built on a 3000 m2 area, materializing the Zionist defeat.
Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake ruins tour – China
Broken old Hanwang Zhen (Hanwan Zhen is a industry town about 3000 killed in Wenchuan 5.12 Earthquake)
