This Photographer Captures Amazing Pictures of Nature Reclaiming Civilization

The fall of civilisation is a morbid curiousity of the human psyche. We pick around the remains of towns and cities long past looking for clues. How do we avoid a similar fate? How long does it take for nature to fight its way through the cracks in the asphalt to reclaim its place in the world? It’s hard to imagine the well manicured cities we inhabit falling into dis-repair so quickly. Photographer Jonk has travelled across Europe and the world finding these locations and shares them with us as he goes.

You may recognise his work from previous issues of M2, namely the Sept/Oct 2020 issue, when his series of Soviet Union ruins was released. His latest book, Naturalia II, is a followup to his 2018 Naturalia series which changed his entire course in life. “I gave up a career in finance to devote myself exclusively to this project. Through Naturalia, and my modest means as a photographer, I try to play my part in the ecological challenge facing Man, by making each and every one of us more aware.”

“A beautiful photo, simple, without artifice, is worth more than any discourse and warns people that there is a real urgency,” says environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. “The threat is real, the future of humanity is in our hands, it is too late to be pessimistic and that it’s time for action.”

“Naturalia puts forward a fundamental question: Man’s place on Earth and its relationship with Nature,” says Jonk. “At a time when Man’s impact on the environment has never been so great, the aim of this series is to increase people’s awareness, without being pessimistic. Man builds, Man abandons. Always for his own reasons. Nature doesn’t give a damn. One thing is certain, when Man leaves, Nature returns and takes back what is rightfully hers.”