In Decay: Stitching America's ruins

In an exhibit entitled In Decay: Stitching America’s Ruins (running through July 8th, 2012), the Chicago Cultural Center showcases Eric Holubow’s work of the past several years, photographing sites of abandonment in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Buffalo, NY.

http://explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/event_landing/events/dca_tourism/EricHolubow.html 
http://www.galomagazine.com/artculture/finding-beauty-in-urban-decay-eric-holubow-at-the-chicago-cultural-center/

Photo: Eric Holubow

For her book Detroit: 138 Square Miles photographer Julia Reyes Taubman spent seven years documenting what is left of Detroit.  She argues its ruins are monuments to American innovation that should be preserved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18271118

Photo: Julia Reyes Taubman

French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city - and hint at the wider story of post-industrial America - in The Ruins of Detroit. Detroit was the industrial capital of the 20th Century and played a fundamental role in shaping the modern world....but the logic that created Detroit also destroyed it. Detroit presents archetypal buildings of an American city in a state of mummification.  These splendid decaying monuments are remnants of the passing of a great Empire -- arguably no less important than the Egyptian Pyramids, Roman Coliseum, or the Athens Acropolis. 

http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/

Photo: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre