Abstract

Photography has played a major role in documenting social shifts and preserving memories of people and places beyond their death. My thesis exhibit examines the loss of places that are central to our society's identity, left as abandoned husks in our midst. By creating a memorial to our own era, and eulogizing it as a time when our own actions began to have serious and long-lasting effects, we envision these sites as signifiers of the decline of America as an empire and a grim harbinger of things yet to come. While photography of modern abandonments has been derided as `ruin porn', the function that the photography of such sites serves is that of a sentinel. They are physical evidence that failures to adapt are met with harsh repercussions.Photography has played a major role in documenting social shifts and preserving memories of people and places beyond their death. My thesis exhibit examines the loss of places that are central to our society's identity, left as abandoned husks in our midst. By creating a memorial to our own era, and eulogizing it as a time when our own actions began to have serious and long-lasting effects, we envision these sites as signifiers of the decline of America as an empire and a grim harbinger of things yet to come. While photography of modern abandonments has been derided as `ruin porn', the function that the photography of such sites serves is that of a sentinel. They are physical evidence that failures to adapt are met with harsh repercussions.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Architectural photography--Themes, motives; Photography, Artistic--Themes, motives; Abandoned buildings--Pictorial works

Publication Date

11-1-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

- Please Select One -

Department, Program, or Center

School of Photographic Arts and Sciences (CIAS)

Advisor

White, Edward

Advisor/Committee Member

Lieberman, Jessica

Advisor/Committee Member

DuBois, William

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: TR659 .M87 2012

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IMGART-MFA

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