“Eternal Monuments in The Dark”: Photograher Captures Brutalist Beauty Of Fragments of The Socialist Era – Design You Trust

“Eternal Monuments in The Dark”: Photograher Captures Brutalist Beauty Of Fragments of The Socialist Era

According to Xiao Yang, a Chinese urban explorer and photographer, based in Spain: “I’m a photographer and designer who is from Beijing, China. Since 2018, I have moved to Spain to live. I studied and worked as a user experience designer in my past career. Photography may not be my full-time job, but it’s definitely my full-time obsession.”

More: Xiao Yang, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook

“I’m fascinated by the man-made environment. There are some topics I’m especially into, like abandoned sites, brutalist architecture, mass concrete monuments, towers, bunkers, underground tunnels, and many other urban structures. Those places are empty and eerily quiet at night in darkness. But the existence of them actually speaks for themselves, waiting for us to discover and listen to their stories – no matter sad, absurd, heartbroken, or beautiful, they are all shinning in the dark, waiting for us to reap.”

“In the past 9 years since 2012, I have been traveling around Europe, photographing monuments at night.

Monuments bear people’s memories of the local environment, they are the ‘record’ of changes of history and culture, and have become the symbol of a kind of cultural remnant. They express remembrance towards the deceased in the past, the cruciality of yesterday’s wars, the adoration of religions and beliefs, the evolution of the local landscape… In the mind of people of today, they have seized a little moment for themselves, fighting against the mortality of life.”

“However, some monuments inevitably faded as time went by, being neglected or even destroyed. As such glorious and solitary beings, their beauty of paradox is fascinating, let alone the aesthetic value of their design. Their daring and avant-garde appearance used to be filled with utopian and futuristic imaginations, this beauty is dazzling and everlasting.”

“I visit them in the dark and paint them with light. I want to present their beauty with a new approach. By using light painting photography, I am trying to create a door: a door that connects the past and future, prosperity and decay, glory and pain, the monuments in front of my eyes and myself. Creating surreality in reality is a fascinating process. While being convicted of insignificance in front of eternity, this is the evidence of our short-lived co-existence that I could provide.”

“I would like to dedicate this series of photos to those who designed the monuments, and those who were once remembered by the monuments.”

Countries:Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, Spain.































































If you want more awesome content, subscribe to 'Design You Trust Facebook page. You won't be disappointed.

More Inspiring Stories

Winning Images Of The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Science Fiction & Fantasy Costume Contestants Posing At The 24th World Science Fiction Convention In Cleveland, 1966
Photographer Michael Massaia Captures Haunting Images Of Central Park When No One Is Around
Marilyn Monroe Hanging Out in a Pumpkin Patch, 1945
The Last Portrait Of Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Showing The Destructive Effects Of Parkinson’s Disease
Post-Soviet Russia in Provocative Visual Mise-en-Scenes of Sergey Chilikov
Incredible Winning Photos From The Nature Photographer Of The Year 2020
The Amazingly Detailed Living Pictures That Show How Scenes Throughout History May Really Have Looked
Amazing Photos From One Eyeland Mobile Photographers 2020 Awards
Olivia Wilde for Modern Luxury
The Best Photographers Of 2021 FdB Wedding Photo Awards
Photographer Tobias Hägg Captures Inspiring Photographs Of The Ocean Seen From Above
Abandoned As A Baby Due To Albinism, Xueli Grew Up To Become A Vogue Model
Chernobyl & Pompeii: 2018 Historical Photographer Of The Year Names Finalists
French Farmers Are Magnifique In Racy 2017 Calendar
Out Of This World: Magnificent Entries For The UK Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2017
Beautifully Arranged Visual Recipes By Mikkel Jul Hvilshøj
Soviet Spirit in Naive Illustrations of Angela Jerikh
Vintage Photos Capture Farewell Scenes At Penn Station In World War II
"Army Troops Around The House": WW2 Toy Soldiers And Their Curious Adventures
Hobby Buddies: Ursula Sprecher And Andi Cortellini’s Weird And Wonderful Photos Of Clubs
HIBERNATION IV: Gorgeous And Intriguing Photography by Øystein Sture Aspelund
If Sailor Moon Was Goth
The Finalists of The 2021 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Have Been Announced