Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre are two French photography artists who collaborate in "ruin photograhy" and "detroitism", a recent movement in which the two are considered forerunners. This approach to the medium focuses on the aesthetic and artistic value of modern urban decay. One collaboration in particular, appropriately named "The Ruins of Detroit", documents precisely what the title describes. The results are generally desaturated, devoid of life, and focus on overall depressing sights of decrepit buildings and forgotten objects. I don't find the work depressing however; I think it does an excellent job at bringing attention to sights that would otherwise not be considered for their aesthetic value because of their physical state.  According to their website, close to half of the 160 square miles of Detroit are disused or rather unoccupied; making for a perfect stage for this collaborative effort.

Quoting Patrick Leary, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who published an article on "detroitism":

"The few photographers and reporters I met weren’t interested at all in telling the story of Detroit, but instead gravitated to the most obvious (and over-photographed) ‘ruins,’ and then used them to illustrate stories about problems that had nothing to do with the city (which has looked like this for decades). I take pictures of ruins, too, but I put them in the context of living in the city. These photographers were showing up with $40,000 cameras to take pictures of houses worth less than their hotel bills."


Max Gilbert

Robert Brook - Matt Gruskin

Robert Brook is a English photographer who works extensively in night photography. He looks at the absence of light, and how the light at night is different than the light at any point during the day.  his main sources of light are street and security lamps, moonlight and any other general sources of light that are common at night.  He mainly shoots more urban areas.  His main body of work is titled "Less Light" which is comprised mainly of photos taken with medium format black and white film.

Tom Bovo, photographer
Bovo, is a graduate of Columbia where he studies drawing, painting and printmaking. He works in New York City where he captures images of architecture in various states of disrepair.
His work involves using traditional materials and making minimal use of manipulation.
Ed Canning