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Ghostly
Ruins: America's Forgotten Architecture
by Harry Skrdla.
What at first glance appears to be a collection of exquisite
photographs documenting the ruins of America's past -- or
an inadvertent guidebook to exploring those ruins -- is
actually much more than that. It is a document of a time
when Americans put much thought and effort into the appearance
of public and private architecture, it is a call-to-arms
for preservation of these places, but mainly it is a critique
of the American way of life.
This last comes across not so directly in the photographs
as it does in the text that introduces the book and each
chapter and that accompanies each ruin. For example, in
the introduction to the chapter on industry -- with places
like the Bethlehem Steel Mill and Packard Plant included
-- the author explains that, "money-hungry capitalists
began to move their factories overseas ... [so] we've convinced
ourselves that we are somehow above the mere manufacture
of goods and that only backward countries still 'make' things."
This sort of commentary is prevalent throughout the book,
though fortunately it is balanced by the author's reverence
for these places, lest his view take on an overly retroactive
stance in a yearning for a return to those days which is,
obviously, impossible. He is also critical of our abandonment
of those glorious structures of yesterday, something circumstantial
in the 20th century (suburban flight) but not necessarily
excusable.
One need not share Skrdla's opinions to enjoy his book.
His photographs embody the widespread appeal of ruins, what
Rose Macauley in The Pleasure of Ruins calls, "the
ruin-drama staged perpetually in the human imagination,
half of whose desire is to build up, while the other half
smashes and levels to earth." The tension between creation
and destruction peppers our experience of ruins, as does
the imagination filling in the blanks left over time. Ultimately
ruins influence the way we do things now, as they give us
a glimpse into the future of our present creations. Perhaps
it's the cheap, disposable building's of today's America
that frustrates Skrdla the most, as their ruined state is
not too distant, and neither pleasing nor lasting either.
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