When we drove across the country – taking months on end – endless awful months – we lingered in North Dakota. There was something about the landscape there that really spoke to both of us. We were in North Dakota in October, so there were massive storms – which we could see from miles away – and the stark lighting – the blazing sun against the black storm clouds – creating all kinds of incredibly strange contrasting beauties – the black rich soil, the fields of sunflowers, the isolated pens in the middle of nowhere, with three platinum blonde boys sitting on the fences, doing nothing – how did they get there? where were they going? – the gas stations in the middle of complete rural emptiness – the radio coming in staticky bursts through the thunderstorms 10 miles away, etc. I basically wanted to stay in North Dakota. It was so foreign to me. I’m an East Coast person which means I rarely see the horizon, unless I’m at the ocean. Our long-view is always blocked, due to hills, tress, etc. North Dakota was flat as far as the eye could see. I didn’t find it a comforting landscape, and in fact it disturbed me a little bit – you felt so EXPOSED on those long empty highways with sky all around you – but it was such an interesting landscape, I felt I would never get sick of it. We pulled off the road to find a campground at one point, and the low sunset light hit the grain elevators, with the thundery dark clouds behind … I do wish I had taken more pictures in North Dakota. I took maybe 4 or 5, which just goes to show you how gob-smacked by the whole experience I was. That place IMPRINTED itself on me.
I felt the same way about Kansas when Eric took me there. GREAT trip. I loved the place. Maybe because his family were such fun, loving people. But also the contrast to all I’d seen before. It was fall, so it was miles of flat wheat fields waiting for spring to wake them up in a dried up oil boom town, since died. A ton of “ruin porn.” All his old childhood haunts were gone. But similar experience – every ten miles or so, you saw the same thing – a Sonic, a gas station/service stop, complete with showers for the long haul truckers, with a Subway on the other side. I was grossed out that the bathrooms had needle disposers. Ew, how many junkies live here? No, baby, he explains, those are for the diabetic truckers passing through that live in their cabs. I can’t wait to go back. I’m glad my man gives me an excuse.
Emily – hey! I’ve never been to Kansas! Or any of those super flat states in the middle of the country – which look so fascinating to me, all those FIELDS.
Ruin porn. I love ruin porn!
and no way about the needles! wow!
always good to hear from you!
I’m on the fence about ruin porn. In one sense, there’s the haunting romance of what once was. Abandoned houses you can see were beautiful in their time, streets you can imagine once bustled with activity and commerce. Gone. The sadness was overwhelming.
But there was this water station in a quiet setting where you can tell teenagers would come to drink and make out (“that’s what I did,” says Eric). Even if he hadn’t told me, I just knew. Mostly because one of them spray painted the word “PENIS” on the back wall behind the station.
Emily – yeah, I follow a couple of “ruin porn” feeds on Instagram – and I agree, they are really sad – but a good photographer can capture the sadness so that you can actually feel the loss! – “abandoned detroit” is one of those Instagram feeds, and you just can’t believe 1. the beauty of some of these ruined buildings and 2. that it’s become THAT bad. It’s almost incomprehensible. Then there are other “ruin porn” feeds like the ones devoted to Chernobyl – terrifying and sad – but also so interesting – the plates and cups still on the tables in the apartments – no time to pack. I know people sneak in to that forbidden zone to take pictures – but it also looks like photographers are sending drones in there to do a lot of the surveillance. It’s haunting – the city totally overrun by the forest. There are also a couple of feeds devoted to these once-“thriving” Soviet cities built around salt mines or coal mines – off-limites to regular people, to the press – completely closed cities – and now totally empty, and being submerged back into the elements. There are some Russian photographers devoted to getting to these isolated places and capturing the desolation – it’s wild.
There’s the reason that Montana calls itself Big Sky Country. This shot reminds me of the grain silos in the town I went to high school. It’s lovely and lonely.
Ruin porn out here is greying sheds and barns that you can see the sky through, out in the middle of nowhere. The land wipes away human traces. I felt the passage of time when I lived back East for a bit. Out here, the feeling is one of timelessness.
Maybe I’m a little melancholy today.
Barb – // Ruin porn out here is greying sheds and barns that you can see the sky through, out in the middle of nowhere. //
wow.
Montana was another state that blew me away – i just couldn’t even comprehend the enormity of what I was seeing. You don’t SEE skies that big in Rhode Island. I’d love to go back.