Sunday, May 3, 2009

Pseudopolis




A found city in complete decay. I find myself wandering in a city and it seems unreal to me. It is unreal. It is so real that it disappears in the mind's eye. I go back to the same location and it is never the same again. Sometimes things have been completely changed or destroyed. Other times the obvious stays hidden in plain sight. You can't step in the same river twice.

The American city is in decline. Has been for awhile. White flight and riots have made their mark. There is a quality of craftsmanship and care in old structures that is missing in today's temporary environment. As the vacant lots multiply nature is slowly biding her time to reclaim the urban environment that man is gradually abandoning.

There are no tags, or identification of these images beyond the title because they are not pictures of places. They are places that are pictured. Unique and universal at the same time. Not a spectacle of urban disfunction but a paean to a culture in its waning years. 

Pseudopolis is every city, an imagined city, imaginary parts of real cities, discovered and rediscovered, and the city of myth.

1 comment:

  1. ...and all this shit will be wiped away by inexorable time. it's a comforting thought now and then. the world after life, after the last cockroach chews his last tasty crumb.

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