JONK

Jonk travels the world in search of abandoned places. Today, he has visited more than one thousand five hundred in fifty countries on four continents.  

Over time, and because of the ecological awareness that has animated him since a very young age, his interest focuses on what seems to him the strongest in this vast subject of abandonment: the places taken over by Nature. It is poetic, almost magical, to see it take back what was its own, reintegrate through broken windows and cracks the spaces built and then abandoned by Man, until it completely engulfs them. 

The photographic series entitled Naturalia: Chronicle of Contemporary Ruins resulting from this work poses a fundamental question: that of the place of Man on Earth and his relationship with Nature. She is stronger and, whatever happens to Man, She will always be there. While the impact of Man on his environment has never been so strong, this series also and above all seeks to raise awareness, without being pessimistic.

Man builds, man abandons. Each time for its own reasons. Nature has no use for these reasons. One thing is certain, when Man leaves, She comes back and takes everything.

Jonk has published nine books. His work has been relayed on prestigious paper and web media. He has received various distinctions in recognized international competitions and notably won Earth Photo 2020 and Environmental Photographer of the Year 2022. His work has been presented in numerous personal and collective exhibitions around the world (Paris, London, Glasgow, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Budapest, Moscow, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, New York…)  

In 2022, Jonk holds his first immersive personal exhibition at the Château du Plessis-Macé where an impressive scenography occupies the 160m² of a black box. The same year he took part in two institutional group exhibitions: L’impossible Sauvage at the Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel in Switzerland and Exodes in Saint-Raphäel in France. This is the first international exhibition of contemporary art in the city. He exhibits alongside renowned artists: photographers such as Paul Nicklen, Gérard Rancinan, Kyriakos Kaziras or Steve McCurry but also other disciplines such as François Bard, Mauro Corda, Barthélémy Toguo or Gérard Garouste.