If you believe the frequently alarmist media, modern society is on its way down -- the economic crisis being just the latest chink in the armour.
A friend of mine tipped me off to the photo essays of Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre. Each essay chronicles the mouldering of once important structures.
One essay depicts the empty buildings of downtown Detroit, many of them once grand and beautiful. The abruptness of their desertion is apocalyptic. These scenes show a city abandoned rather suddenly -- no time to collect the furniture.
Another essay shows abandoned old theatres in the U.S. They were once the focal points of culture -- high and low -- in America. They too were deserted almost fully intact, right down to the ropes. The same is happening in Canada, as Cineplexes stamp out old neighourhood theatres.
What I find extremely interesting is the conversion of many of these theatres to churches. The places where people went to see all manner of debased entertainment -- sex, drugs and violence -- are now the places where people go to renounce. What a coup.
All of the essays show the artifacts of a ravenous and rabidly industrial society -- one that creates and consumes its empires in mere fifty-year spans.
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