*** Welcome to piglix ***

Ruins photography


Ruins photography, sometimes called ruin porn, is a recent movement in photography that takes the decline of the built-environment (cities, buildings, infrastructure) as its subject. While “ruins” may be broadly defined as the remnants, or residue of human achievement from the temples of ancient Sumeria to Machu Picchu, ruins photography refers specifically to the capture of urban decay and decline in the post-industrial zones of the world. Ruins photography aestheticizes the abandonment and decline of the city most of all, and has sparked conversations about the role of art in various revitalization and restoration projects from Detroit to Berlin.

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. 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 leftover 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 and 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.


...
Wikipedia

...