Sunday Oct 23, 2011

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Evocative Pictures: A different kind of blog

This is a departure from my regular blogs but I came across these pictures and found them fascinating. They are photos by French photographers Marchand and Meffre of buildings in Detroit.

I found these pictures a couple months ago and spend a while googling different pictures of closed buildings in Detroit. Ruins basically.

I find it fascinating. These grand buildings just left to rot. So many of them it looks like the doors were just locked one day. It looks almost post-apocalyptic with the furniture and books just left there.

It strikes me because well its North America. Its a big city. In so many cities builders would be clamouring after these sites for restoration or lofts. And its not just small buildings its on such a large scale.

So below are some of the pictures and you can find many, many more if you go looking for them. They range from the Grand Central Station to hotels and schools, libraries, banks and police stations.

Grand Central Station


Hotel Atrium


Hotel Ballroom


Bank Vault and Boxes


Floor of a Factory


Church


Classroom


Hallway in Grand Central Station


Hotel Room


Public Library


Hotel Ballroom


Police Station


Theater
78walk:
Beautiful, sad, amazing photos.

We had a similar experience in my town, on a smaller scale. A lot of our great old buildings only survived the exodus from the inner city in the 60's through the 80's because nobody thought it was even worth their effort to tear them down. Now we're in the early stages of an inner city renaissance and those old buildings are a big part of it.

Hopefully many of these grand Detroit buildings can escape the wrecking ball and live again someday.
nighttone:
Amazing photos. You just found those on google? great work! Yeah, very emotional spaces. The stories those places could tell.

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