Grandiose Decay: Ruins of Detroit

The new collection of photos by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre are mesmerizing and romantic in their baroque beauty; the decaying Detroit buildings they capture seem to beckon us to wander through their crumbling ruins, to peek into their dark corners for ghosts -- both the historical and paranormal varieties. But there is also a lingering, deep sadness attached to them, sadness for what for what once was and has been lost...

I cannot help but ask why I feel sadness when I look at these photos, but do not feel the same emotion when I look at photos of, for example, the ruins of ancient Greece. The answer certainly lies in their relative newness: most of these structures were built in the early 20th century, a time not so disconnected from our very own. But they have become something akin to pre-historic ruins. The life and collective importance of the buildings are gone and only the shell remains. I wonder, what buildings which we cherish today will become ruins in the future? Do you, lovely readers, get this same feeling of loss and regret when you see a beautiful old building wasting away?

I want to leave you with a fragment from Charles Baudelaire's poem "The Flowers of Evil" in which he mourns, not the old, crumbling buildings of Paris, but the new, modern construction that began taking over the city in the mid 1800's. He already saw the new city as a collection of impending ruins:

"The old Paris is gone (the face of a city
Changes more quickly, alas! Than the mortal heart)

Paris changes, but nothing of my melancholy
Gives way. New palaces, scaffolding, blocks,
Old suburbs, everything for me becomes allegory,
While my dear memories are heavier than rocks..."


::Find Marchand and Meffre's book here; some beautiful quotes on ruins; a link to Baudelaire's poem; you can take a guided tour of Detroit's ruined buildings.