Matt Emmett is a prolific urbex ("urban explorer") photographer, working in Europe. He shoots locations that are off limits to the public, like this control room panel from a long-abandoned power plant in Belgium.

The upper platform of an old cooling tower in Belgium.

The interior view of another cooling tower in Belgium.

The guts of an abandoned power station in Luxembourg.

The buttons and knobs on this vintage control desk were found in a building used for testing gas turbine naval engines.

A view of the condensing pond, in one of the Belgian cooling towers.

Not all of Emmett's photographs are of industrial sites. In fact, he says the interior shots—like this one of an abandoned farm kitchen in the Luxembourg countryside—tend to be more popular.

A historic trading house in Belgium.

Inside the National Gas Turbine Establishment in the UK, where early jet aircraft engines were designed and tested.

An old university in the UK.

This geodesic radar dome in the Belgian countryside was once a military listening post.

This old Belgian school is one of several sites that no longer exists. This is one reason why Emmett says he photographs for posterity: to create a historical record of buildings and sites that have been or will someday be demolished.

An underground reservoir in London.

A jet nozzle and pressure bulkhead in one of the test cells at the National Gas Turbine Establishment. Emmett says this is where engines were "flown" under simulated supersonic speeds and altitude conditions.

A view of a Victorian-era sewage pump house in east London.