9 years ago
1
Debbie does decay: what 'ruin porn' tells us about ruins β and porn
Porn. Few words come with as many pre-loaded connotations and assumptions. So what are we to make of the rise of "ruin porn"? Should photos of urban decay brighten or darken our day?
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I find this whole porn label for photos of urban decay to be a bit of a stretch. I'd wager that most people that are into this kind of thing are into it for deeper reasons than liking the aesthetics.
Granted, when I walk past an abandoned building I don't think of the socioeconomic and criminal costs of having that abandoned structure in a community. I do find myself wondering about the people that lived and worked there and passed on and how the life of the building shaped the lives of its caretakers and that of their future generations, and how that reflects my own existence in that life passed from these buildings leaving a ruined shell and so to will that soon happen to me. So for me this medium allows me to think on the tenuous nature of my own existence.
Now is that pornographic? I guess that depends, some would certainly view excessive self-reflection as masturbatory. They might be right, but I'd like to think that its deeper than that.