American Ruins

by Camilo José Vergara

The deterioration of the American inner city stands in stark contrast to the prosperity characteristic of the United States for much of the twentieth century. Skyscrapers that once defined the modern era stand derelict and abandoned. Massive industrial manufactories lie rusting, their cavernous interiors dark. Formerly vibrant theaters shed bricks and terra-cotta ornaments. These desolate fragments of America's cityscapes are the legacy of decades of proud investment in the urban realm followed by decades of devastating neglect.

Photographer and sociologist Camilo José Vergara has spent years documenting the decline of the built environment in New York City; Newark and Camden, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Chicago; Gary, Indiana; Detroit; and Los Angeles. His photographic sequences—images of the same sites taken over the course of many years—show once-sturdy structures as ghostly ruins and then as empty lots or flimsy new buildings. Grand civic edifices—the Michigan Central Railroad Station in Detroit, the Essex County Jail in New Jersey, the Camden Free Public Library—have become empty, roofless shells, dusted with snow in the winter and filled with stray plant and animal life in the summer. Monumental commercial and industrial buildings such as RCA Victor's "Nipper" Building in Camden and the Packard Automobile Plant in Detroit bear broken windows and rubble-strewn interiors. At once a scathing critique of national indifference to the plight of the inner city and a meditation on the aesthetic impact of desolate and neglected buildings, American Ruins stands as a witness to a vanishing era of the American city.

Genres: Photography, Architecture, Nonfiction, Art and Photography, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 1999

Reviews

[Julio Palomino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como arquitecto y urbanista me maravilla. Como lector, aún más. Este libro evidencia a través de muy buenas imágenes y de una manera simple pero tremendamente condensada la la estética, el aura y lo sublime del paisaje en declive de las ciudades y la industria americana, a la vez que, a través de fragmentos de entrevistas, la diferente pregnancia que provocan en los que los ven desde fuera y de los que viven en estas ruinas del desarrollismo.
Critica a las administraciones que dejan que lleguen a ese estado, y valora fervientemente su estado como hitos del imaginario colectivo y partes inherentes de la historia de las ciudades que no debemos olvidar.
Es muy agradable de leer, en algunos casos se siente como un cuento, la historia que te cuenta un abuelo. Sencillo de leer pero con ideas muy profundas, que sirven como paralelismo a otras mucho más actuales de Urbanistas y Paisajistas como Elieen Braae, ya en el ámbito académico.

[Scott Benowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book tells you precisely what this book is. This is a photo essay of abandoned buildings which are located in various cities throughout the U.S.. Many of the buildings that are featured in this book are crumbling and are gradually being reclaimed by nature.
I'm an amateur photographer myself, I will verify that the photos in this book are all excellent.
If you're interested in architectural history, if you're interested in architectural photography, if you're interested in abandoned buildings, urban decay and thinking about the possibility of urban renewal then you'll want to add this book to your reading lists.

[Scott Wiener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never thought of there being ruins in America. Stunning photographic study. I love the sets taken multiple times over a span of years.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book documents the decline of buildings and neighborhoods of Michigan, New York, Indiana and New Jersey. I would call it more of a photographic study on this topic, rather than an "artsy" book of photography, although some of the images in the book are certainly quite beautiful. The bulk of the book is devoted to "before" and "after" shots of these landmarks, and in many cases there are multiple photographs documenting the slow decline of one building or one block of a neighborhood.

The desertion and ruination of buildings and neighborhoods is quite fascinating to me, perhaps because I have always lived in the Pacific Northwest and that type of desolation and neglect isn't as common as it is on the East Coast. There is something to me that is so sad and tragic about beautiful buildings that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build that are now going to rot and ruin. This book explores the issue of what is to be done with buildings that have lost their usefulness, and that are too expensive to either renovate or implode?

There are two images in particular that stood out to me. The first is of the Camden Free Public Library. This gorgeous Beaux-Arts structure that cost $120,000 to build in the 1900's stands abandoned. One of Vergara's photographs of this building is of the trees that are now growing in the interior of the building. Happily, this site reports that the building will be renovated. The other image that really stuck out was one of a theatre in Detroit that did not have so happy a fate. The author happened upon the building as it was being demolished and began taking photographs of the site, much to the consternation of the "drunk with the wrecking ball." In one of these pictures, the theatre has been demolished except for the area surrounding the stage. The red velvet curtains that hung around the stage are still hanging, framing the wreckage.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruin porn with redeeming social value. Vergara doesn't just exploit decayed and collapsing buildings for their sad beauty. He gets to know them, and sometimes their denizens and neighbors, complementing his lovely photos with engaging, and often depressing, stories.

[Kelly K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was glad that Brush Park in Detroit was mentioned in this book since seeing those is what first got me interested in studying urban decay. This was quite an interesting book that focused on abandonment in Detroit, Camden, Gary, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York (though mostly Detroit).

[Katherine]

what?! I hadn't added this yet?! I haven't read it yet because I can't check it out from the library here, I've been meaning to order a used copy online...I recommend all his books.