This is why I get no sleep...

chair2 by ~KIM~ on flickr

...Because I discover things like the Polaroid House, on places like flickr, and find them so endlessly fascinating that I spend hours trawling through hundreds of photos, wishing I was cool enough to come up with such fantastic ideas, or, failing that, lucky enough to witness such brilliance in person. Sadly, this is not to be, as is made all too clear by the title of the Polaroid House's flickr pool, 'RIP Polaroid House'.

The Polaroid House is the brainchild of American flickr member, Kim, who found an abandoned house an hour north of California back in 2008. In an interview on www.holgablog.com, she says

"...it really struck something inside me and i knew i would be back. it was so quaint, representing a bygone era in its craftsman styling. the decay of the house and the decay of that era..."

Kim and her friends returned to the house armed with hundreds of polaroids, and covered both the walls and floors with them. A think carpet of photographs, and a polaroid wall ready to be replenished and reworked by future visitors. And they came in their droves, if the sheer number of photos in the flickr pool is anything to attest by. Unfortunately, some visitors failed to respect (or understand?) the nature of the project, and large numbers of polaroids were taken, holes were kicked in the walls. In April 2009, the owner of the house contacted Kim, stating that whilst she had understood and appreciated the installation at first, she was disappointed by the fact that the house was being trashed. The Polaroid House was dismantled, only to live on in the hundreds of photos collected on flickr. And to be endlessly oggled at by one girl on the other side of the world, long past her bedtime.

1 from leah | ohheygreat 

2 from Gotfish / Marc Briggs  

3, 4, 5 from ~Kim~

6 from Gotfish / Marc Briggs

7 from J-Easy

8 from iFaMusicNerdEntOgrapher

9 from boxbabe86

10 from ~Kim~

Meels' Year of the Photo part three: Inspiration from Motor Town

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre photograph ruins, but not as you know them. You won't see a Colosseum or Sphinx among their photographs, instead you'll find the ruins of modern society, "the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension."

The pair's images range from disused industrial facilites in the old GDR to once opulent theatres across the states, and, in my favourite set, the remains of Detroit's 1950s heyday.

From Marchand and Meffre's site:
"Detroit was...the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods... Since the 50's, "Motor City" lost more than half of its population. Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization."

The Detroit photos are dripping with poignancy - the grand old buildings appear as a ghost town: looming large, they are devoid of human presence, yet nonetheless convey a strong sense of past occupants. Furthermore, there is an overwhelming impression of the impermanence and fragility of man's endeavours against the ever ticking clock of the universe. Indeed when visiting the ruins of Hadrian's villa outside of Rome, the thing I was struck most by was the contrast between the crumbling bricks and the vigor of the umbrella pines growing all around them. Looking at ruins can remind you of the insight and ingenuity of our early ancestors, but it also puts things in perspective and makes you realise how small and insignificant your life is in the grand scheme of things.

As much as I am moved by all this emotional and philosophical content, I think it is the textural quality of Marchand and Meffre's images than I enjoy the most. Paint no longer just covers surfaces, it flakes, cracks, chips, dust flutters in beams of light; hell there is even a melted clock. Take that, Salvador Dali. I, too, snap away whenever I encounter interestingly decaying paint and surfaces, but never in all my travels have I encountered anything as beautiful as the remains documented by Marchand and Meffre. Now enough of my philosophising/jealous rambling, time to let the images speak for themselves. Suggested soundtrack for viewing: Sufjan Stevens, 'Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head!' (well, what else?).

[http://www.marchandmeffre.com/index.html]

Veni Vidi Vici (AKA Ancient Rome nerdery)

Centurions and the like by Nomade via Wooster Collective. These have popped up in NY, LA & San Francisco, and I think they are all kinds of awesome.