The Disintegration of Gary, Indiana

Artist / photographer David Tribby has documented decaying and abandoned theatres, schools, and churches in and around Gary, IN.

A slideshow of Mr. Tribby's work can be found at his Flickr page.

He also has a book available: Gary Indiana | A City's Ruins.

Phantom Images of the Everyday

I love love love the "City of Shadows" series of photographs by Alexy Titarenko. Long-exposure shots of St. Petersburg, Russia that turn dreary urban scenes into fantasickal landscapes populated by billowing shadow-creatures.

At my first glance, the photos called to mind the "smoke monster" from the TV series "Lost." (Is that still a show?) But considering the nature of the photos - single still frames documenting the inevitable passage of time - I wonder if this is how a Tralfamadorian might see the world.

Read more at BLDBLOG (a site you should have bookmarked anyway). According to Titarenko's site, a book of the series was published, but I have yet to locate a copy for sale online. So it goes.

Unique Quay Brothers Exhibit in NYC

"Dormitorium: Film Decors by the Quay Bros." is an exhibit running through October 4, at The Parsons School for Design in New York.

From the exhibit web site:

"The exhibition combines rarely seen, collaboratively designed miniature décors from some of their most prominent works, as well as continuous screenings of excerpts from several of the films."

The combination of the miniatures and films is, I think, a great idea, allowing visitors to experience the décors, which are beautiful by themselves, and then to see them in context within the strange, oddly moving films for which they were designed and built.

Exhibit information:
Gallery hours: Daily 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and late Thurs evenings until 8:00 p.m. Closed all major holidays and holiday eves.

More information can be found at The Parsons School web site.

Photo by: Flickr User Astropop

Stages of Decay

Stages of Decay is an online exhibit of pictures by New York artist Julia Solis. Since I work for a theatrical contractor, I see a lot of theatres and auditoriums in various stages of neglect. Some are miraculously well-preserved for their age and some are almost unusable. But I haven't had the mis- (good?) fortune to find myself in any spaces quite like the ones documented here:

http://www.abandonedtheaters.com/

The Flash-tastic website prevents me from linking to any of the actual photos. I would imagine that this is by design. Trust me, though, it's worth the trip.