Ruin porn is one of the more interesting “first-world” developments of recent years, at least in my humble opinion. For those unfamiliar with the concept, “urban exploration” involves visiting and photographing decaying areas, usually in cities.
There’s something hauntingly beautiful about many of these images, but at the same time, it feels extremely exploitative. Many of these most popular sites for urban exploration are in ruins because of ongoing economic crises (see “ruin porn” in Detroit. Lots and lots of Detroit.)
In the course of trying to clear out blog post drafts, I cam across many half-formed thoughts on this topic, as well as links to interesting examples. I figured I’d just try to distill everything down to one post here, even if it just means listing some of the links:
- The Eternal Traffic Jam (Chatillon, Belgium)
- Heritage USA (Fort Mill, South Carolina) (This was Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s amusement park back in the day.)
- Real-Life Ghost Ship (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands)
- Abandoned Space Shuttle (Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan)
- Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon (Chuuk Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia)
- I did not mean literal ruin porn, y’all (Samara, Russia)
- A literal representation of the collapse of communism (Buzludzha, Bulgaria) (Pictured above.) (see also: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Blogs and websites abound with more ruin porn urban exploration photography.
Fair warning, though: Google “ruin porn” at your own risk, especially if you’re looking for pictures o_O
