It’s been a full year since we’ve first pointed you to Yves Marchand’s and Romain Meffre’s fantastic photographs from the ruins of Detroit. About two weeks ago the british Guardian ran a great story about their work and their book “The Ruins of Detroit” (amazon affiliate link), including an image gallery with a number of photos that haven’t been seen online before. You should check them out!
These are absolutely worth reading and especially seeing! Beautiful photographs that hint at numerous and unfortunately sad stories from the urban America of the 20th century.
As every one visiting this blog once in a while may have noticed, abandoned and decayed places are undeniably a subject of interest both for our writing here as well as our proposed 3D documentary film. I’m always so fascinated by the eerie atmosphere and the haunting memories these images provoke. Just like filmmaker Teddy Smith, obviously. He took a tour of Six Flags New Orleans which has been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has never been reopened. Check out his beautifully shot video below. The park is scheduled to be demolished in early 2011.
American Ruins in 3D! That sounds almost like a scene from THE AMERICAN BACKROOM… or rather like a photo project by Matt Bergstrom. He’s creating three View-Master Sets of abandoned buildings in decay.
“American Ruins” is a three-dimensional, photographic series exploring unusual, abandoned buildings — like a candy factory! — to be viewed on an old-fashioned View-Master. Both an exploration of architectural history and a fun throwback to childhood, backers will receive their very own View-Master viewer and a complete set of reels!
Matt needs a little financial support to get things started so he launched his project on Kickstarter: American Ruins in 3D! How cool is that. Definitely worth our support. Click the image below to check it out:
The ruins of Detroit and the downfall of what once was America’s fourth largest city are definitely one of the most fascinating aspects of the “other America” – and have been a topic on this blog severaltimes before. In the latest chapter of Detroits videography, a shoe company sent Jackass-frontman Johnny Knoxville to Detroit. Not to mock it Jackass-style, but to visit the local art scene that is flourishing between overgrown façades and abandoned shopping malls – adding just another new aspect to the whole Detroit-story. The end result is the urban explorer-style documentary “Detroit Lives!”. Below you will find a trailer and part 1 of the full-length documentary, hit the jump for parts 2 and 3.
Crazy! There’s this guy who does a Forrest Gump and crosses the USA by foot! Well, not really. But it’s still a nicely done stop-motion shortfilm from… ehrm, it seems like it comes from a major jeans brand. Never mind. It makes us get itchy feet, and that’s still a true feeling. So, in case you wanna follow in the guy’s footsteps, wearing jeans or not, click here for a Goole Map of his journey.
Wow! The Denver Post put together an amazing set of color photographs taken between 1939 and 1943 in post-depression era America. Some of the only color pictures that take a close look at the effect of the Great Depression on rural America. Color photos from times long ago are a treat anyway, but these ones are even more special. They’ve been taken from the archives of the Library of Congress, in particular from the color set of the 1930s to 1940s. Head on over to flickr to browse through them for yourself, but be warned, it’s a whopping 1,615 photos in this set alone.
The Scout Magazine produced three short, but beautiful documentaries on distinct small businesses that combine art and craftsmanship to create something special: It’s the Mast Brothers’ Brooklyn Chocolate Factory; Roman & Williams, architects and interior designers; and Billykirk, leathermakers. Definitely worth a look.
It’s here! The tilt shift miniature test footage we shot during our 3 month research road trip across and back the United States in the fall of 2009. Watch it now in glorious HD and full screen! This was our first try at it and it was shot mainly to explore on settings, locations and motion. Of course some shots are working great, others less great We’ve learned a lot and it helps tremendously in developing the storyboard for the actual stereoscopic 3D tilt-shift shoot of THE AMERICAN BACKROOM in 2011. BTW, We are currently in talks with tilt shift miniature-artists (some of them you might know) to get them and their talent aboard for the production.
Here’s a list of locations seen in the clip (in order of appearance):
San Francisco, CA | Louisana State Route 14S | Grand Chenier, LA | Calexico, CA | New Orleans, LA | San Francisco | Grand Canyon, AZ | Los Angeles, CA | Palm Springs, CA | Hollywood, CA | Santa Monica, CA | outside Slab City, CA | Coleman, OK | San Francisco | Camp Verde, AZ | Monterey, CA | Lavina, MT | Santa Monica again | Melrose, NM | Santa Monica | Austin, TX | outside Bakersfield, CA | Page, AZ | Austin | Santa Cruz, CA | Austin again | Hollywood | Austin again and agian | New Orleans | Austin | Page | Austin | Santa Cruz
What if tomorrow everyone’s car just disappeard? That was the question that Ross Ching asked himself. As an answer he came up with the following video in which he got rid of all the cars in L.A.. It’s the city of 12-lane-superhighways without the cars. Without the trucks. Without any motorized vehicle… Take a look.
We’ve learned a lot and it helps tremendously in developing the storyboard for the actual stereoscopic 3D tilt-shift shoot of THE AMERICAN BACKROOM in 2011. BTW, We are currently in talks with tilt shift miniature-artists (some of them you might know) to get them and their talent aboard for the production.
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