Once upon a time is a portrait of the post-industrial heart of Western Europe. From the 1970s, more and more mines and factories closed. It became a shabby region with an uneasy cinematic beauty. Each ruin is a story in itself. It wants to tell you something about a glorious past, but it remains a mystery what happened exactly. What I closed my eyes to as a teenager, I developed a bond with as a photographer. I have come to feel more and more connected to that raw post-industrial landscape of the region next door to mine, which has lost every scrap of its former grandeur.
