The Secret Garden: Imagery and Message in the Rust Belt
Vine Carpet 2011. (Credit: Tara D. Sturm)
There has been considerable discussion and debate on the value (or perhaps damage) of ruin porn throughout Rust Belt cities, particularly Detroit. Artists have jumped on the opportunity to capture the sophisticated concept of decline and devastation. Some argue that this art aims to expose the harsh realities of economic and population decline, while others claim it an exploitation. Images are a powerful force, capable of tapping into an emotional response unreachable by sterile statistics.
There are two questions that come to mind then: Who is our audience—and what do we want to say about our cities?
Vine on Brick 2011. (Credit: Tara D. Sturm)
At a recent event I attended here in Cleveland hosted by Saving Cities, a similar debate arose concerning decline and devastation-based campaigns that cities and their organizations have utilized. Embracing the realities of our city has allowed us to own the problems and create a positive message from a rather negative aspect of our present or history (one commenter cited Cleveland’s Burning River Fest as an example). Others worried that the rough, rugged nature of this sort of message may be fitting—but ignores progress and reinforces a stigma that may not help these cities move forward. Pushback against excessive boosterism, however, rings equally concerning. The transitional nature of post-industrial cities requires a kind of flexibility, and certainly any messages we wish to send out should embrace energy and vitality—but I also would argue that there is no truer proof of life than sweat and raw grit.
Window 2011. (Credit: Tara D. Sturm)
Whether it is a name like ‘Rust Belt’ or a collection of photographs picturing decaying industrial buildings, there is much to be thought about in terms of imagery and what message we want to send out to the masses. I contemplated this delicate balance as I snapped a series of photos in the city of East Cleveland last week. I admittedly had never walked the streets of this small community, and walked through the rows of vacated buildings amazed at the lack of people…but the simultaneous abundance of life that I found all around me. I had heard stories about nature reclaiming areas of Detroit—but as expected, the visual impact of this unguided tour spoke much louder than any collection of words I’ve encountered.
I offer these photographs, then, as a visual metaphor for the semantics and imagery that we encounter all throughout the Midwest. Capturing them would serve little purpose if it were not a call to action—both to recognize and define the problems at hand, but also to understand the necessity in acknowledging the not-so-obvious sources of vitality that live within every community. Though perhaps not every city manifests this principle so literally, every city needs to discover its secret garden in all of its tragic beauty. Only then can we work to reach an identity that is both genuine and forward-thinking.
Takeover 2011. (Credit: Tara D. Sturm)
To see the rest of the photographs, visit the set via Flickr.
[...] recently picked up a gig writing for Urban Times, and decided to kick-start my time with them by posting a piece about how we use imagery to define [...]