What Would Earth Look Like if We Weren't Here? Abandoned Photographer Shows Us

A collage showing: an abandoned ornate chapel with stained glass, a rusty overgrown rollercoaster, and a lush green tunnel of trees over railway tracks. — Romain Veillon has documented a great many locations

From zombie apocalypse movies to alien TV shows, there is a morbid obsession with what it would be like if humans vanished from the Earth.

Prominent abandoned photographer Romain Veillon taps into this fascination. He travels all across the world in search of locations that have been forgotten — and are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

“The title, The World Without Us, is a perfect illustration of what I wanted to show,” Veillon says in reference to his new book, Green Urbex 2.

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“I wanted to convey an environmental message in my book by showing what the world would be like if we weren’t there anymore, meaning that if we continue on this way, humanity’s disappearance could be one of the consequences.”

A vintage teacup amusement ride sits abandoned and overgrown with green vines and fallen leaves, surrounded by lush trees and vegetation. The ride's canopy features colorful floral patterns.

Four old, rusted vintage cars sit abandoned in a decaying building with broken windows and a mossy, debris-covered floor. Sunlight streams through gaps in the roof, highlighting overgrown plants inside.

An abandoned room with peeling murals of outdoor scenes on the walls and ceiling, ornate wooden doors, crumbling plaster, debris, and sandbags scattered across the dusty floor.

View through an open doorway framed with lush green vines, looking out onto a sunlit garden path and a distant body of water under a clear blue sky.

An ornate, abandoned interior with tall windows, decorative moldings, peeling paint, and a grand curved staircase, showing faded elegance and natural light streaming from an upper window.

The French photographer explains to PetaPixel that he split the book into three sections that capture varying stages of decay: the first shows abandoned places that remain intact as if humans recently vanished, just some dust gathering on the floor; the second part shows walls cracking as these places start to crumble; in the third and final section nature reclaims what humans made and the viewer can only guess there was ever any intelligent life there.

“That’s what I prefer working on, when ivy takes over everything,” Veillon explains. “We can see what the world could look like if humans disappeared from Earth. We are all fascinated by this post-apocalyptic vision.”

An abandoned indoor swimming pool overtaken by vegetation, with a rusted, partially collapsed roof, broken tiles, and debris scattered around the empty, dirty pool. Sunlight filters through the open ceiling.

A rusty, overgrown roller coaster winds through dense green vegetation under a clear blue sky, with loops and tracks partially hidden by trees and plants.

A white stone castle with a round tower stands surrounded by trees, reflected in the still green water of a moat, under a clear blue sky.

An abandoned, decaying church interior with a large dome ceiling, peeling paint, broken columns, and debris scattered across the dusty floor. Sunlight streams through holes in the roof, illuminating the derelict space.

An abandoned, ornate chapel with stained glass windows, intricate carvings, and overgrown plants covering the floor. The wooden double doors and arched ceiling feature detailed Gothic architecture.

Veillon traveled to Myanmar, Namibia, Ireland, Georgia, Japan, Guyana, Portugal, and many more destinations as he explored houses, castles, palaces, churches, factories, theme parks, hospitals, railways, greenhouses, and schools.

“Without a doubt, Kolmanskop was my favorite,” the photographer says. Kolmanskop is a ghost town in the Namib Desert of Namibia, which flourished at the beginning of the 20th century after diamonds were discovered there. In a classic boom and bust tale, folks moved out as the diamond field depleted and found more fruitful pastures nearby.

“I was there for a week shooting, the atmosphere is somehow unreal and magical, like time has stopped there years ago,” Veillon says of Kolmanskop.

“That is my most well-known photographic series and it is also the perfect illustration of what I want to show. Moreover, it is a unique place where you feel you could be on another planet or even on another timeline where mankind has disappeared.”

A series of doorways in an abandoned, yellow-painted building, partially filled with mounds of sand that flow through each room, creating a surreal, desert-like interior scene. — Kolmanskop in Namibia

An abandoned, circular amphitheater with snow covering the floor, rusted metal roof structure, and colorful murals of faces and scenes on the walls. A faded red emblem is visible in the center of the ceiling.

An abandoned, ornate room with pale green walls, white molding, a damaged piano, old armchairs, debris on the floor, and a hole in the ceiling letting in light. The space appears dilapidated but once elegant.

An abandoned, decaying bedroom with mold and moss covering two beds and walls. Wallpaper peels off, paint is chipped, and an old rotary phone sits on a small table between the beds. The ceiling and floor are heavily damaged.

An abandoned, two-story house covered in thick green ivy stands in an overgrown yard, surrounded by tall grass and trees under a partly cloudy blue sky.

An abandoned indoor swimming pool filled with green plants and moss, with scattered pool toys and life rings, under a high blue ceiling with large windows letting in natural light.

Veillon says he’s been fascinated by abandoned photography since he used to explore a decaying truck factory close to his grandmother’s house, where he would stay each summer.

“I would imagine that, like many people, discovering the decaying house at the end of the street is a memory we all have deep inside of us,” he says.

“When I encounter such a place, my goal is that everybody can travel in the past with me and make up the stories they decide they want to: Why was this place abandoned? What happened to the former owners? What used to happen in this room? People make their own kind of answer.”

“It makes them go into their imaginary world and become the hero of their own adventure,” he continues. “Each story will be different — and that’s what I love. To me, my photos act as a new kind of Memento Mori; they are here to remind us that everything has an end, and that we should enjoy it while it lasts.”

An old, rusted chair covered in moss and ferns sits in front of a wall overgrown with mold, algae, and peeling paint in an abandoned, decaying room.

A cluttered, abandoned living room with worn armchairs, orange curtains, and a chandelier. The floor is covered with piles of empty bottles and trash, creating a chaotic scene. Light enters through two windows.

A room in a ruined building with collapsed wooden beams, overgrown greenery on the floor and ceiling, and faded murals depicting draped fabric and trees on the walls. Light filters in from above.

A wide view of a grand, abandoned domed hall with crumbling columns, peeling paint, debris on the floor, and sunlight streaming through a hole in the ornate ceiling. The space feels decayed yet architecturally impressive.

Train tracks run through a tunnel of dense, lush green trees and foliage, forming a natural archway overhead. The perspective draws the eye toward the vanishing point in the distance.

Veillon’s book, Green Urbex 2: The World Without Us, is available at bookshops in France, including Amazon. He is still searching for an English publisher to buy the rights — (if you are such a publisher, then please contact Veillon).

More of his abandoned photography can be found on his website and Instagram.

Image credits: Photographs by Romain Veillon