In some places in the world, construction is only embarked upon for the purpose of making others think the situation is politically or economically better than the reality. The term “Potemkin Village” is used to describe such buildings and derived from Russian Prince Grigory Potemkin. In order to impress Empress Catherine II, the field marshal erected portable façades of villages along the route during her journey to Crimea in 1787.

Photographer Gregor Sailer has encountered plenty of Potemkin Villages built for different reasons. There are field exercise centres in the USA and Europe, urban situations built for vehicle testing in Sweden and fake streets for impressing high rank officials in modern Russia. In Sailer’s photos from The Potemkin Village, these artificial communities all project a haunting and foreboding atmosphere in spite of the reasons behind them.