Photographer Gregor Sailer’s new book focuses on incredibly detailed, entirely uninhabited, completely fake urban landscapes.
“These Cities Might Look Real But They’re 100% Fake”
By Laura Mallonee
Wired
October 25, 2017
Junction City has all the trappings of an Iraqi town: a brightly painted mosque; shops adorned with Arabic script; the occasional humvee or tank rumbling by. But you won”™t find it anywhere near Mosul. It’s a stage set at Fort Irwin, in the middle of California”™s Mojave Desert, where US troops simulate fighting insurgents.
“It”™s a lonely place, full of buildings no one will ever live in,” says photographer Gregor Sailer. “It”™s like a ghost city””the wind smashing the doors, blowing through the streets.”
Sailer captured Junction City and 21 other fake urban landscapes for his fascinating new book The Potemkin Village. They include a New York-themed town in Sweden built to test cars for road safety; a Russian city with elaborate facades disguising forlorn buildings; and a Dutch hamlet in China that tourists visit for a taste of Europe. “Sometimes they”™re more real and other times they”™re more an illusion,” Sailer says. “I”™m jumping between these two worlds, and that”™s what makes it exciting for me.” Read more.