The Onion Skewers This Blog (sort of)

There's an article up at The Onion that neatly skewers the whole concept of looking for beauty in the ruins of modern America. The headline pretty much sums it up:

Artists Announce They've Found All The Beauty They Can In Urban Decay

"These modern ruins speak to the very heart of the human condition, but at this point every last inch of Detroit and Oakland has been documented in photographs, on film, or as part of a multimedia installation," said artist Devon Gerhart, who told reporters that devoting so much time to contemplating the wounded grandeur of blighted cityscapes had led him to the point where he just wanted to see the places cleaned up.


Point, taken, The Onion; from here out I'll just post cemetery pictures and articles about Día de los Muertos.

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.

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.