Grandiose Decay

The 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 there once was and has been lost...I'm particularly fond of them, because I come from not too far from Detroit and I can remember going there & seeing the buildings!

Michigan Central Station

Atrium, Farwell Building

18th floor dentist cabinet, D. Broderick Tower

United Artists Theatre

Vanity Ballroom

I wish to leave you with a fragment from Charles Baudelaire's poem "The Flowers of Evil" (in English) 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.

Have a wonderful weekend dollfaces!!

xoxo

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