Ghost Towns, Namibia – 2003
In 1908, August Stauch, a young German worker in charge of the maintenance of a rail track in the Namib Desert, found a diamond pocking out of the sand. A few months later there was a diamond rush from Germany and a handful of towns were rapidly built in the middle of the desert. These towns, named Kolmanskop, Grillenthal, Bogenfels, Pomona and Elizabeth Bay were inhabited for forty odd years before they were completely abandoned. Still standing today, the many houses of these ghost towns are gradually falling to pieces, and are slowly disappearing under the slow progression of the desert sand dunes.
Fujifilm Prize Euro Press Photo 2004
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