In defense of Ruin Porn

The outside world sees the ruins as beautiful scenery but in a real sense, the ruins represent signs of poor architectural skills and knowledge. Ruin porn is attractive to us because they make us develop questions in our minds regarding historical changes and how situations have been transformed within a short span of time. We tend to look at the scenes in the pictures and compare them to the current situations surrounding them and feel better about ourselves for living better lives and in good surroundings. In a photographic work titled ‘Abandoned Future’(2013), the author argues that human beings are already prophesying the destruction of the world by fascinating about the ruin porn. He describes people as being apocalyptic since people find it interesting to see the scenes without taking any necessary actions to change or stop the ruins from happening.

Since the incorporation of the name “porn” in the ruin photography industry, it has been difficult to make people understand that ruin photograph arts do not carry such heavy messages that pornographic films have. Porn is a strong word to be used in describing ruins but since it is already being used, Americans are obsessed with the ruins and are fascinating about them to their own advantage while others are suffering because of the losses experienced in the ruins. The ruin photographs appear as having filthy features that are similar to pornographic features because the journalists are too lazy. For instance, a picture was captured at Michigan Central depot in Detroit before it bolted (Bentley, 2008). The pictures portrayed awful scenarios and disorganization of the place and there was no offense in people comparing that place with scenarios in pornographic films.

The photographer of Last Exit Detroit (Christian Burkert) has faced criticism from different authors who believe that his photos are mainly used as sources of bringing out the topic that some cities such as Detroit have been ruined completely and cannot easily be renovated (Lyons, 2018). Basically, I accept the fact that ruin porn is used as a source of letting everyone be aware of the conditions affecting the poor in other parts of the country. Majority of people living in major cities and towns are not aware of how the other parts of the country look like. Availability of ruin porn enables them to have a first- hand information about various conditions affecting the poor and the less fortunate. This argument is supported by Jacob Riis’ seminal work in 1890 which outlines that ruin porn is not about how other citizens live, but it rather depicts what the other citizens live with since they are part of the decay surrounding them.

The filthy state of America ruins will still remain until the problem is completely solved. Works Cited “Roosevelt Theodore. ” Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. eLibrary. Web. Lyons, Siobhan. Erratum to Ruin Porn and the Obsession with Decay. Ruin Porn and the Obsession with Decay, 2018, pp.  E1-E1. Wells, Kate.