Ruins photography

Ruins photography, sometimes called ruin porn,[1] is a recent movement in photography that takes the decline of the built environment (cities, buildings, or infrastructure) as its subject. While "ruins" may be broadly defined as the remnants of human achievement (e.g. the remains of ancient Sumer or Machu Picchu), "ruins photography" refers specifically to the capture of urban decay in the post-industrial areas of the world. Ruins photography catalogues the abandonment and decline of cities most of all, and has sparked conversations about the role of art in various urban renewal, restoration, and conservation projects in cities throughout the globe.

Detroit's abandoned Michigan Central Station is a frequent subject of photographers, and a backdrop for movie-makers

Background

Though seeing a recent resurgence as a modern form of photography that focuses on urban decay, its roots come from popular notions of the picturesque which would often feature motifs concerned with the aesthetics of abandoned and dilapidated architecture.[2] Subjects are typically large industrialized cities (e.g. New York City, Chicago, or Detroit) but can be any landscape, building, or symbolic representation of modern ruin and deindustrialization. Popular staples of ruins photography can include abandoned houses, neglected factories left over from the Industrial Revolution or auto industry booms, as well as bridges, abandoned lots, tenant or apartment buildings, or gutted theaters or offices.

Photographer Camilo José Vergara helped to bring the style greater recognition in the 1990s with his books The New American Ghetto and American Ruins. In the 2010s, photographers Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre published The Ruins of Detroit which brought renewed interest.

The style relies heavily on lighting, detail close-ups, long shots, and digital imaging. Ruins photography is different from historical architectural photography in that it does not focus on comparisons between past and present, but instead focuses on the state of the subject and how it came to be dilapidated.[3]

Reception

Some critics liken ruins photography to exploitation, comparing its appeal to that of sensationalist pornography.[4] While most regard it for aesthetic purposes, critics find fault with the style’s minimal attention to the cities and places visited.

John Patrick Leary, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said:

And others roll their eyes at all the positive attention heaped on the young, mostly white ‘creatives,’ which glosses over the city’s deep structural problems and the diversity of ideas to help fix them. So much ruin photography and ruin film aestheticizes poverty without inquiring of its origins, dramatizes spaces but never seeks out the people that inhabit and transform them, and romanticizes isolated acts of resistance without acknowledging the massive political and social forces aligned against the real transformation, and not just stubborn survival, of the city.[4]

Others embrace ruins photography as a way of marketing for potential tourism, while yet others have insisted that it can serve as a powerful call to action. Responding to critics such as Leary, Detroit blogger James Griffioen suggested that there are different ways to mediatize urban and industrial decline: one spectacular and sensational (exploitative), the other more responsible.

The few photographers and reporters I met weren’t interested at all in telling the story of Detroit, but instead gravitated to the most obvious (and over-photographed) ‘ruins,’ and then used them to illustrate stories about problems that had nothing to do with the city (which has looked like this for decades). I take pictures of ruins, too, but I put them in the context of living in the city. These photographers were showing up with $40,000 cameras to take pictures of houses worth less than their hotel bills.[5]

Ruins photographers are responding to critics who suggest that the genre pays little attention to local stories, by bringing the histories of the places and structures they photograph into their narratives. However, this new wave of ruins photography—more sensitive to the histories of structures and cities—is being met by a new wave of criticism. Locals in Detroit, Chicago, and other Rust Belt cities most featured by ruins photographers, point to the continued absence of the people living among the ruins from such accounts.

Ruins around the world

Detroit, Michigan is a major center for ruins photography. Experiencing rapid population decline after the 1950s, Detroit has seen many homes and large buildings abandoned, vandalized and destroyed. Many other major cities and smaller settlements that once thrived have decayed over periods of time, some even becoming ghost towns due to economic hardship or civil unrest.

The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania saw its population vanish due to a fire that spread from a nearby cemetery and ended up sparking smoldering flames in extensive abandoned coal mines below the district. The state of Pennsylvania has blocked roads to the area, but there are about ten vigilant inhabitants that remain.[6] Other examples of urban decay include Gary, Indiana and Camden, New Jersey.[7]

Hashima Island, Nagasaki, Japan was an empty island that became populated due to its coal deposits. Home to some of Japan's first concrete high rise buildings, it became a ghost town when petroleum replaced coal.[8] Another example of a ghost town is Kolmanskop, Namibia, built by Germans into a successful diamond mining community. After the mining stopped and the workers left, the desert repossessed the area.[9]

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See also

References
  1. Greco, Joann (January 6, 2012). "The Psychology of Ruin Porn". The Atlantic Cities.
  2. "The Analysis of Beauty". www.tristramshandyweb.it.
  3. Marchand, Meffre. "Marchand and Meffre". Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  4. Leary, John Patrick. "Detroitism". Guernica Magazine of Arts & Politics. Guernica Magazine. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  5. Woodward, Richard B. (February 6, 2013). "Disaster Photography: When is Documentary Exploitation?". ArtNews.
  6. Urbanist. "Abandoned Cities, Towns and Buildings: 7 More Deserted Wonders of the Modern World". Web Urbanist. Web Urbanist. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  7. TheCoolist. "Abandoned Places: 10 Creepy, Beautiful Modern Ruins". Web. TheCoolist. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  8. Christian M., A. Abrams. "Battleship Island & Other Ruined Urban High-Density Sites". Web. Dark Roasted Blend. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  9. "Weird Ghost Towns and Deserted Villages". Web. NerdyGaga. Retrieved 25 January 2013.

Further reading
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