Biography

Henk van Rensbergen (Brussels, 1968) is a pilot and an urban explorer who explores the empty buildings. His photographs immerse the spectator in an unknown world of images and impressions, in which fantasy gains the upper hand over objective observation. Henk van Rensbergen has had several exhibitions and his photographs have been widely featured in the national and international press. 
 
"It is an enormous privilege to visit an abandoned building. Each time it feels like I've been invited, even though I haven't really. I come as a guest, with respect for these buildings that show themselves from their most sensitive side. Each has its story to tell. Some stories are short and concise, others long and hard to follow. Occasionally, you have to search hard, but finally you always catch on. The silence says more than all the noise that ever was there.
 
Abandoned places touches a sensitive nerve. We ask ourselves why these buildings have been abandoned. Who lived there? What happened there? The questions one asks when investigating a vanished civilization. My photos show our own forgotten civilization and what we have left behind. I observe our own crime scene. Not as a policeman but as a photographer. Not to establish the facts, but to reproduce the emotions of the moment. My photos, always detailed and seemingly objective, are open to interpretation and imagination. Ultimately, it is the spectator who decides on the story that took place here: observation and imagination awaken the buildings and bring them back to life.
 
What we see is often impressive, sometimes funny or endearing, recognizable or incomprehensible. Every visit is instructive, occasionally dangerous and always exciting!"
 

Favorite pictures