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.
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.
Photographer Nadav Neuhaus went to the New Mexican desert to document a community of several hundred people that – in a way – revive the old times of the wild wild west. “Life off the Grid” is the title of his short video about self-supporters without water, without electricty. And without law. Unfortunately it’s only 3 minutes long. But if you wanna know more about life on the Mesa you can still check out the award-winning documentary “Off the Grid” by Jeremy and Randy Stulberg.
You are about to witness the exciting story of a city and its people. It will be an adventure that will open new sights in familiar surroundings. That city is Detroit. Home of nearly two million people.
Proud words that open the documentary “Requiem For Detroit” by Julian Temple, commissioned by the BBC. Words that stem from an old promotional film, spoken by one of Detroit’s former mayors. What Julian Temple does with these words and the corresponding image is so simple, yet powerful that I got goosebumps running down my spine. He took that old promotional film and projected it onto decaying ruins of Detroit’s inner city and had the voice of the former mayor echo through empty windows and abandoned hallways. A technique he utilizes more than once during the 75 minutes of this fantastic documentary. Temple talks to artists, poets, urban explorers and many others that lead him through decaying urban landscapes, telling about the rise and fall of what was once one of the most influential cities of the Industrial Age. Julian Temple says:
Detroit was the frontier city in the US, powering the American dream. What I find fascinating is the fact that it is still ahead of the game, becoming the first big US city to virtually fall off the map.
A Must-Watch! Right now right here. Hurry now, before YouTube takes it down.
Post-apocalyptic movies like “I am Legend” use special effects worth millions of dollars to create worlds that have long become part of reality in Detroit. In the ruins of Motown Yves Marchand und Romain Meffre, photographers from Paris, France, have found monuments they compare to the pyramids of Gizeh, the Colliseum in Rome or the Akropolis in Athens. The result of their photography is creepy and beautiful at the same time and provides us with another set of insights into an America that can rarely or never be seen.
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies
and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.
The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at
some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires.
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