/food, wine and art
Henk van Rensbergen
/photography of abandoned places
He was born in 1986 in Brussels, Belgium. Since the age of 22 he has been a pilot and eventually he became a captain. Long before his passion to fly, his interest in photography started to develop. He was and still is interested in photographing abandoned places. He puts it this way: “Inside, the deafening noises have been replaced by silence, but if you listen carefully, the walls will tell you their story."
Henk van Rensbergen has given an exhibition from 02/11/2012 until 04/11/2012 in our gallery.
For more information about his artworks, visit his website.
In April 2007 Lannoo published his first book “Abandoned Places”. Both the first and second editions were completely sold out. For its launch, there was an exhibition at the MIAT museum in Ghent.
In October 2008 Henk van Rensbergen had his first exhibition at Life Is Art in Antwerp. Given the great success of this exhibition, more followed.
Since the first book was such a great success, a sequel was inevitable. In September 2010, Lannoo published “Abandoned Places 2”. Again, both the first and second editions were entirely sold out. The presentation of the second book took place at the Salvator House in Antwerp.
In September 2012 a third sequel of “abandoned places” was published, again by Lannoo. This time, the presentation of the book was held in Life Is Art in Antwerp.
This photograph of a junkyard was taken in the middle of a Belgian village. An odd place for a junkyard you would think. But there is a remarkable story attached to this picture. In 1947, an American convoy of trucks drove towards Antwerp when a snowstorm brought it to rest. That storm lasted for seven days and the convoy of hundreds of cars was covered in snow. That spring, it became clear that all the cars were ready for the scrap heap. However, they never moved again.
This photo was taken in the Broderick Tower in Motor City, Detroit. A city that once was the heart of the automobile industry, now appears to be a ghost-town. When Henry Ford build his first factory to produce the T-Ford in 1908, Detroit rapidly became an industrial centre. But as you can see, nothing lasts forever.