ruin porn :: the beauty and the sadness

we explored this old house four years ago when we were here. i'm thinking a lot about decay these days - there is beauty in it, but also sadness and sorrow. think of the memories, lying dormant in these peeling walls - memories of children's laughter and running footsteps, of family meals, of fights and prayers and love and frustrations, triumphs and tragedies. this house was surely a witness to it all, a silent, stoic, untelling witness.

desuetude in photography

this photo of an abandoned farmhouse in SD is by me

bloggy friend celkalee sent me a link to some stunning (if a bit over-processed) photography of abandoned places by dutch photographer niki fejen. some of the the photos were featured yesterday on huffington post. i initially thought the photographer was a woman and it's weird how i had a different feeling about the photos before i found out fejen was a man. fejen calls the style urbex (urban exploring) and he likes to wander places you're not supposed to go (i like him already).  he makes me want to visit chernobyl even more than i did before. (note: i have chosen not to post any of his photos here (it seemed impolite) - please visit his website to see them.)

but as usual, the photos have me thinking. i find them, with their HDR style, to be over-processed and despite the subject matter, too slick. tho' at the same time, they are rich and lush and i linger at each one, taking in all of the details of the desuetude. but the processing gives me pause as to their authenticity. i have to wonder if some of them aren't staged.

errol morris devoted an entire chapter of his book believing is seeing (which i highly recommend, it's a must-read if you like to ponder photography) to a photo of mickey mouse amidst rubble that may or may not have been staged by photographer ben curtis in lebanon on 2006. morris does an exhaustive analysis of whether the photo was staged, even interviewing curtis, who says it was not. he also sensitively explores the feelings such photos bring forth in us and the meanings we instinctively ascribe to them and how they can be used to manipulate public opinion. it's a discussion of authenticity and staging that's worth reading. but i digress a bit from fejen's photos. and i recognize that if they are at times staged, it means less than if photos of war are staged.

as i looked through the gallery on fejen's website, some of the photos just rang with a false note for me. was that moss on the bed in photo no. 11 really that green or has he dialed it up in photoshop? photo no. 36 - i have to wonder if that bowler hat was really there on the back of the chair, or did niki pick it up and place it there for the shot? the wheelchair in no. 44 and no. 45 would seem to indicate proof of staging. the open doors, affording a peek in to a jesus statue down the hall in no. 46 seems a bit too perfect. the way the chairs are carefully lined up in no. 122. and the doll with the gas mask on in the chernobyl set, did she really have that on and was she really sitting on that chair? but does any of this matter? anytime you raise your camera and take a shot, you're making choices about what's included and what's not and you are, in a sense, manipulating the scene. it's part of the medium. i think when it bothers me is when it causes the photo to ring false.

i also find it a bit annoying that for the most part, the photos are not labeled as to where they are taken, tho' i recognize that abandoned hospital near berlin that so many have photographed. i wonder why he has chosen to do that? i look at them and the first thing i wonder is where it's at. is he afraid we'll all jump on a plane and go take our own pictures? or does he think it lends meaning for us to imagine for ourselves where they are? me, i just find it rather irritating.

i am, however, a sucker for a dead piano (no. 28, 33, 36, 146, the organ in no. 58) - there is such aching beauty in those. and i still remember the first one i saw and photographed, in an old castle along the banks of the volga river. unfortunately, it's buried somewhere in a box somewhere in this house and i cannot locate it at the moment, so i can't show it to you. 

ruin porn: south dakota style (take three)

this abandoned house has a bit more family connection. or more accurately, it missed having a family connection. it's apparently a house that my grandfather considered buying when he instead chose what is known in our family as "the house on the creek" (pronounced "crick").

with nine children, this house is bigger, so i can imagine that he should probably have chosen it. but i can also understand why he chose the other one, as it was tucked away down a winding road in a most charming way. tho' i have always wondered how they all fit in those small rooms. i can still hear my aunt saying, "this was the girls' room." and "this was the boys' room." pointing at two small rooms upstairs.

i haven't heard any tales of this house being haunted, but when i walked over to it to take photos, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. it's easier to visit these houses together with others - if you're alone, your imagination begins to work overtime.

i stepped inside to snap some interior shots and heard a creaking sound upstairs. tho' it was the middle of the afternoon and sunny and bright out, a chill ran down my spine. then i heard little footsteps - it was likely just a raccoon. but i'll admit i stepped back outside, in case it was a skunk. or something else.

this one did have a slightly more spooky look than some of the others we visited. big, square, imposing, windows broken, holes in the roof, peeling paint. it just had a spooky air about it.

these old houses only whisper their stories and it's hard to catch those whispers. there is a sadness and a haunted quality about some (but not all) of them. i wonder what they think of being allowed to fall apart? i wonder if they care or if it makes them sad? i wonder if somehow they hold within them the echoes of those who lived there, even when they're long gone? i wonder if those voices can still be heard, if you listen in just the right way?

exploring these old houses was one of the high points of our trip. they fascinate me. i think i'm not done pondering why.

minimum maintenance: ruin porn, south dakota style (take two)

we found some more abandoned barns and farmhouses today, down the minimum maintenance roads. i cannot express the delight we have had in exploring these. i know they contain the sadness of abandon, but strangely, we have so much affection for them - all three generations of us. it feels like moments of touching bygone days. and if you could just listen closely enough, you'd hear the whispers of those who lived there.

ruin porn: south dakota style

we had a most marvelous afternoon exploring old abandoned houses. we hoped to run into some ghosts (more about that soon), but other than one incidence of sabin hearing a voice, but not seeing anyone, we didn't have that much luck. we'll be doing this again before our trip is over. there are so many abandoned farmhouses in this age of big farms - it's no longer one family per property, so many have stood empty for years. they are both sad and pleasingly photogenic.