Michael Schwan

Biography

Michael Schwan captures forgotten memories from abandoned places and recalls the beauty of the past. Schwan's photographs are not just decorative moments, but are evocative and sensory insights into various notions of decay, decline, and nostalgia. Schwan focuses on the special magic of lost places. Filled with rich decorative elements, abandoned spaces speak of the beauty of a bygone era, the decay of ornate buildings, and the poignancy of decadence before they speak of their former glory. The physical encroachment that can be found in abandoned places, which stimulates beauty in a tasteless way, becomes an artistic record of original possession, starting from nature and returning to nature. Born in 1988, Michael Schwan grew up in Saarbrücken, where he discovered the fascination of photography in his early youth. When he turned 18, he realized that the possibilities of his small camera were limited, thus he quickly needed something more professional. In line to his style-finding, he launched and later graduated his engineering studies on Material Science at the University in Freiberg near Dresden. The main focus of the photography of Michael Schwan is capturing abandoned places. For his passion, he travels from his home in Germany to forgotten places throughout Europe, only armed with his Camera. The reward he gets is not limited on marvellous photographs on his journey, but he also gets an insight view into the beauty, the decay and the nostalgia of bygone days. He quickly became the first point of contact concerning academic-photographic projects, such as compilations from the exhibitions of the National University Museum. What began as a creative balance to his studies, soon became an indispensable passion.