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German photographer Michael Schwan’s ongoing series The Beauty of Decay captures abandoned European buildings as plants, water and time transform them. Its images are both records of particular places and close studies of what happens to paint, plaster, furniture and other surfaces when human care stops.
What is The Beauty of Decay about?
The series follows nature’s return to interiors left behind by people. Ferns spread through an old hotel; plants enter a former hospital; moss covers a dye factory; and leaks turn another abandoned hotel into what a caption calls “a blooming biotope.” Across the photographs, green growth meets peeling paint, damp walls and damaged structures.
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That contrast gives the work its central tension: spaces built for shelter, work or leisure gradually become environments shaped by moisture, vegetation and structural failure. A room’s former purpose remains legible in its furnishings and architecture even as those things are overtaken.
How do the photographs make decay visible?
Schwan’s images draw attention to physical change rather than treating abandonment as a single look. A viewer can trace different stages and signs of deterioration:
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- Natural reclamation: a few plants entering a room can feel very different from vegetation spreading across furniture and architectural surfaces.
- Material change: moss, moisture, peeling paint and leaks make the passage of time visible on walls and other surfaces.
- Structural damage: fire damage or collapse shows a more severe kind of loss than surface weathering alone.
- Former use: decorative interiors, institutional rooms and sparse furnishings preserve clues to the lives the buildings once served.
Schwan initially trained as an engineer, focusing on materials science. That background helps explain the photographs’ attention to surfaces and material breakdown, alongside their atmosphere and composition.
What kinds of places appear in the series?
Schwan travelled across Europe and photographed a range of abandoned sites, including a Polish castle, a Portuguese hotel, hospitals, factories, villas, schools, gyms and resorts. The examples below are representative scenes described in the 2019 New Atlas feature, not a complete catalogue of the project.
| Place or building | What the captions establish | What it brings into focus |
|---|---|---|
| Boarding school for political education | Built in 1981 and abandoned in 1990 (New Atlas, 2019). | The institutional history of a building left unused. |
| Former carpet factory | Abandoned in 1991 (New Atlas, 2019). | A former workplace marked by moss and other signs of decay. |
| Five-star resort | Opened in 1971 and closed in the early 1990s (New Atlas, 2019). | The contrast between former luxury and later abandonment. |
| Hotel damaged by fire | The building was later demolished (New Atlas, 2019). | Fire damage and the limits of what remains to be photographed. |
| Former hospital and other hotels | Captions describe plant growth in a former hospital and ferns or leaks in hotels. | Nature entering spaces once designed for care or accommodation. |
Why does Schwan photograph abandoned spaces?
Schwan has said he wants viewers to look back at the histories embedded in abandoned places. In the New Atlas feature, he writes: “Most people in the city rush around and have no time to look back into the past,” Schwan writes. “I want to remind them of that history. Whether filled with rich decorative elements or by spartan furniture, the elements left speak to the former glory of these abandoned spaces.”
The photographs hold that history beside visible change: the rooms retain traces of their former functions while nature and decay alter their surfaces. Schwan was born in 1988, according to his Singulart artist profile.
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Where can you view or buy the photographs?
New Atlas’s March 2, 2019 feature presents the series and representative images. It reported that many photographs were available as large limited-edition prints through Schwan’s website at that time. That report does not establish present-day stock, prices, edition status or shipping terms.
Schwan’s Singulart profile also lists works, but current availability and sales terms may change. Check either platform directly for current listings and purchasing details.
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