Ilan Benattar

Ilan Benattar is a gallery owner and photographer from Hossegor recognized for his photographs of buildings taken over by nature.

What does he like now? Forgotten architectures, nature regaining the upper hand, unusual discoveries, the beauty emanating from desolate constructions, the contrast between construction and vegetation.

He sees there a "brutal contrast between the past and the present", places where "nature is reborn after the passage of man". This attraction for capturing passing time is easily noticeable in his works, very often exploiting the symbiosis between nature and architecture, vegetation and human materials. This opposition of forms gives him the sensation of moving in areas frozen in time, with heavy silence and significant spiritual potential.

Ilan sees in the beautiful faded buildings with a glorious past still visible the "destiny of the sublime". A sublime original which sooner or later is withdrawn from the vestige, forming a call to order to humanity: as magnificent as you are, vestige you will become.

The photography of urbex then takes on an essential societal role for him: "It is an indirect way of raising awareness as much as possible about the sadness of these prestigious places, which fall irretrievably into oblivion."

Ilan responds with his works to a double need: To bear witness to a desolate heritage and to teach the viewer the hard lesson of life according to which nothing is immutable.

"The purpose of sharing my photographs is to make people forget the word "desolation" and to prove that even if the places are abandoned, beauty still exists".