Ruins photography, sometimes called ruin porn, is a recent movement in photography that takes the decline of the built environment as its subject. While "ruins" may be broadly defined as the remnants of human achievement, "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.
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. Subjects are typically large industrialized cities 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 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.
Reception
Some critics liken ruins photography to exploitation, comparing its appeal to that of sensationalistpornography. 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: 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, the other more responsible. 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.
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. Other examples of urban decay include Gary, Indiana and Camden, New Jersey. 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. 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.
