MetaFilter posts tagged with urban and photography

The Loss of Human Scale: Old Hong Kong vs New Hong Kong

milquetoast — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:43:38 -0800

For the last two years, Flickr user HK Man has been collecting old photos of Hong Kong, finding the exact spots at which they were taken, and taking them again. The result, from his first photo of Victoria Harbor to a more recent one of Nathan Road, comprises a chronicle of Hong Kong's unrestrained vertical development over the past few decades. In a similar vein, Gwulo is a community site for "for everyone that is interested in old Hong Kong" and includes photos, mysteries, and discussions -- such as this one about old Kai Tak Airport. More on HK Man at URBANPHOTO here and here. Bonus Kai Tak videos: Overview and Landings over Kowloon.

Detroit schools urban exploration & reclamation.

Item — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:49:39 -0800

Urban exploration has been featured here once or twice before, but Jim Griffioen's site photo-documenting his discoveries in and around Detroit deserves a look. Griffioen was recently interviewed [direct mp3 link] on the American Public Media radio program The Story. Jim is most interested in schools. He's taken photos of trees growing through books and other things left behind. Recently Jim has gone beyond documenting what he sees and is reclaiming what he finds. He collects abandoned library books and other school supplies and gives them to community centers. Previously - blog post by Griffioen on Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo

Picture London without Londoners

Kattullus — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:24:17 -0800

Abandoned London is a Flickr set by photographer IanVisits of London on Christmas morning when the city is (almost) denuded of people. Very disorienting if you've been to London (or any major city, really). I got this via William Gibson's blog and I'll let him describe it in his inimitable way: "Christmas, particularly in the early morning, has always seemed so much more liminal to me than New Year's eve. Spectral, deeply in-between [...] something about the way in which traffic, pedestrian and vehicular, controls one's depth of field, fragmenting and animating the experience."

Holmes' and Watson's World

digaman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:01:27 -0800

One minute and four seconds in London, 1904. Birkbeck College professor Ian Christie rediscovered this footage in an archive in Canberra, shot for a travelogue by film pioneer Charles Urban.

The Colors of Decay

Hollow — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:46:28 -0800

Keith Thorne has stunningly colored pictures of decaying urban spaces on his Flickr stream, including some taken at an abandoned German military hospital that once treated Adolf Hitler. A few pictures feature himself. Via.

Urban Exploring

Soup — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:59:25 -0800

Urban Exploring. Recently: Sanatorio Popolare Cantonale di Piotta. Sinteranlage, Duisburg. Atomschutz Kurfürstendamm, Berlin (flash). (Previously.)

#7: Ten percent of all city space shall be open land where you can "touch the dirt"

salvia — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:26:49 -0800

"First we kill the architects..." Photographer Danny Lyon [1, 2, 3, 4] offers ten suggestions for New York City. Suggestion #6: "Leave the World Trade Center excavation exactly as it is and use the space as a freshwater pond planted with pink, white, and yellow lilies..." His essay is only one of many from names you'll recognize in a book called Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York. An associated exhibition opened yesterday [museum, NYT review]. Is New York City moving in the right direction? Is your city? [via] Footnotes: * It might also be interesting to see what others think about the direction of NYC. (Though only eleven people had expressed their opinion as of this posting.) * Background on Lyon's suggestion #7: he titled a collection of Polaroids of his children I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt.

beautiful ruins

melissa may — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:36:04 -0800

Photography of the unexpected and neglected architecture. Romain Meffre and Yves Marchand travel the world photographing "singular and surprising buildings of all domains," mostly 19th and 20th century urban and industrial architecture. Don't miss the photos of Detroit (under Projects), or more of Marchand's stunning work at his personal site.

Photography of Japan's Underground

jonson — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:57:00 -0800

Joe Nishizawa's new photojournalism book, Deep Inside, is a visual exploration of the amazing, highly mechanized world under Japan's urban areas. This brief interview with the author is accompanied by several interesting photos.

Society stripped away

CunningLinguist — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 08:17:35 -0800

Naked in the Naked City. Artist Miru Kim takes curiously compelling nude photos of herself in gritty and deserted urban settings like sewers, subway stations, railroad tracks, tunnels, abandoned factories and asylums. (via)

Giant Woman Licks Man

taz — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:50:31 -0800

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)

Shooting in Atlanta

cali — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:44:53 -0800

Cop shoots from patrol car. Beautiful and fascinating photos taken by an on-duty police officer in southwest Atlanta. Thumbnails are cropped, click to see full photo. (via things)

Street Photography

cmonkey — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:31:42 -0800

Street photography. Beautiful photos of urban life and decay.

Shinsato

hama7 — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 21:09:28 -0800

Shinsato: Great vacant night cityscapes of Osaka and Tokyo.

Early 20th Century Harlem in Pictures and Stories

Ufez Jones — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 08:23:36 -0800

Harlem 1900-1940, a site full of pictures and history. The scope of this portfolio is Harlem from the years 1900-1940. Various elements of the history of the urban experience in Harlem's early days as the Cultural Capital of African Americans are represented here by graphic and photographic images from the Schomburg Center collection.

exploring the abandoned

jdaura — Tue, 18 Mar 2003 05:48:28 -0800

Explore the abandoned - all things we build must pass into an inevitable and steady deterioration. Thanks to those who chronicle civilization's entropy and put it on the web, because it's mad fun to watch.

Ruavista - Signs of the city (Photography)

chill — Thu, 28 Nov 2002 04:47:20 -0800

Ruavista explores city streets and urban life through all kinds of signs: street graphics, architecture, street sounds. Put simply, a fantastic resource for urban photography.

tomplus2 — Tue, 14 May 2002 20:45:51 -0800

Graffiti with lights, long exposures and a bunch of cameras. ...beautiful stuff.

BT — Wed, 03 Apr 2002 20:53:42 -0800

Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll right to get to the thumbnails.)

Su — Fri, 08 Mar 2002 12:58:57 -0800

20 Pictures by Boogie at Artcoup. Great urban photography. #18 is um...special. Must be seen.