Photographer and artist James Chadderton has created this dark yet beautiful series that satisfies our perverse attraction to the speculation of our own demise. The crumbling cityscapes provide us with a haunting insight into how familiar streets and buildings could look if the apocalypse actually did happen.

Explaining how it all began, James said: "I'm a great fan of science fiction and the post apocalypse genre. I grew up watching The Terminator, Mad Max, Threads and playing Wasteland on my Commodore Amiga and later Fallout and Stalker on the PC. It's terrifying (especially Threads) but also very interesting and completely alien. I wanted to avoid labelling what caused the absence of humans and erosion of the buildings. I believe half the enjoyment of looking at concept art is to make up your own narrative to go with the image."

What about the process behind the artwork? James explains: "Most images start with a photo shoot of the location. I set up the composition in the view finder and create sketches from there, working in debris and collapsed areas and making sure the image still works. Back in the studio, I thrash out ideas and layouts using traditional media. This is usually the most time consuming process and I'll go through a lot of layout paper before I finalise an idea that I'll take into digital. Often the main challenges are things like, what would the inside of that building look like, how would it collapse. What does glass look like if it's been melted?"

The Shard, London

Beetham Tower, Manchester

Deansgate, Manchester

Beech Road, Chorlton

Urbis, Manchester

The Font, Manchester

The Printworks, Manchester