A sign marks a railway crossing next to the troubled Kruemmel nuclear power plant on June 2, 2011 in Geesthacht, Germany. The German government recently announced it will phase out the country's 17 remaining nuclear reactors by 2022 in a policy initiative that represents a radical reversal from its previous policy and was sparked by the disaster at Fukushima. Kruemmel went into operation in 1983 but was taken offline following a fire in 2007. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The disused bobsled track from the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics is seen on Mount Trebevic, near Sarajevo, September 19, 2013. Abandoned and left to crumble into oblivion, most of the 1984 Winter Olympic venues in Bosnia's capital Sarajevo have been reduced to rubble by neglect as much as the 1990s conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Back in 2010, French photographer Antoine Bruy began hitchhiking around Europe without any fixed route. Along his travels, he met people who had entirely abandoned city life in favour of an isolated country existence they found more fulfilling. Bruy began seeking out people who lived off-the-grid. After three years on the road, staying in makeshift houses and on community farms, he has released Scrublands, a documentation of the lifestyle. While each living situation is different, Bruy found that all the people he met shared a common desire to escape the rat race and achieve a quieter life in harmony with nature. (Photo by Antoine Bruy)

Photographer Niki Feijen for his new book, “Frozen”, photographed several abandoned buildings across Europe. Capturing their haunting beauty from years of decay. Here: Paperflow – Room inside a former monastery. (Photo by Niki Feijen)

When it opened in 1955, the Grande Hotel in the Indian Ocean city of Beira was one of the most luxurious in Africa. Photojournalist Fellipe Abreu documents the lives of the 3,500 people who now fill this long-closed hotel to capacity. (Photo by Fellipe Abreu/The Guardian)

People appear dangling as a large-scale installation art piece by Leandro Erlich, named “Dalston House”, in London, England. Part of the “Beyond Barbican” summer series of events, the interactive installation is a full facade of a late nineteenth-century Victorian terraced house built on the ground with a large mirror above it to reflect people as to appear dangling from the structure. (Photo by Dan Dennison)

Visitors walk past the fully equipped dining table inside the “Crazy House”, which is completely built upside-down, in the village of Affoldern near the Edersee lake, May 7, 2014. Three friends came up with the idea to build the tourist attraction, which cost about 200,000 euros and took some six weeks to complete. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)