The Creators Project: The combination of luxury and decay is equally appealing and off-putting. Whether it's shabby-chic, faded Hollywood glamor, or the staunch-yet-penniless vibe of the heroines in Grey Gardens, it seems society has always had a complex, car-crash attitude towards people and places that have gone downhill. Mirna Pavlovic's photo series Dulcis Domus documents our uneasy relationship with the recent past through images of abandoned mansions, decaying villas, and disintegrating palaces of Europe, with the ghosts of former landlords silently echoing riches-to-rags tales we'll never know.
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Photos like these always fascinate me. I love looking at pictures, but to be more specific older and more rugged photos. I think the article says it right, “should we be repulsed to see how a beautiful building has gone to disrepair, or should we be fascinated by the way the paint peels and the roots grow through the walls? “ I think that every time I see these type of photos. There a certain beauty to old destruction like this. I think about an older article I read that showed pictures of old olympic stadiums abandoned and broken down. There is sadness in the ruin and destruction but yet a beauty and life in the simple and poetic air of these buildings. I think there is so much to see in each picture too. You can sit there and just stare and find details in every corner that wouldn’t just walking by. It is a good reminder to take in what is around you because there is beauty all around us.
I love that most of these photos are taken facing a flat wall, with a door or window at the center. The architectures of these spaces has so many clean lines. The molding in particular adds to the boxes in each room. Between boards falling through holes in the ceiling, knocked over trees, and peeling paint, each photo has a strong sense of disrupted symmetry. I don’t feel sad looking at the photos. The building are in disrepair, but it doesn’t look like a fire or sudden destruction, furniture isn’t covered in sheets as though someone intended to return, and the rooms look bright and airy. To me, the photos seem surreal in that these don’t look like spaces a human can be in. They look silent, frozen, and untouched. I don’t know how the photographer walked through the spaces without obviously changing anything, but it worked out really well.
This article really gives you a bittersweet feeling. It makes me think about the same caliber of buildings that are still standing, operating, and being displayed to the public like the Frick Museum. While these old palaces are almost completely destroyed and would be asking for a lot of money to even start being renovated, the two are beautiful in their own ways. I like to imagine that this is exactly what our skyscrapers and modern buildings are going to look like in a couple centuries. This type of stuff is already happening in abandoned houses and towns. An interesting thought is to think about how nature is going to take over and erase practically everything if the human race were to disappear. Everything we've created would deteriorate to this exact level until its gone completely. I think the author and photographer is brave not to feel upset and she has an extremely interesting view that as time passes and our buildings deteriorate, it produces "some that is not man-made nor natural."
This article reminds me so much of the Great novel Great Expectations. For some time this novel has been my favorite for its grandiose nature and it's over-the-top dramatics, plus it's a bittersweet love story and coming of age plot all in the same spine covered pages. One of the most drawing part of this but to me is Miss Havisham's castle of a home and it's decay after her lack of marriage to her once fiancé. To me these photographs remind me of that, not only the decay of the walls, but the glory that was once held within walls of these great European houses. These photographs and the photographer themselves do a fantastic job of depicting the stories going into each of these homes. I continually question how did there houses come to be in who and what characters went inside. Ultimately I feel this article was very successful as engaged me in the material and pulled me into the topic of debate on architecture over the decades. Just like the pages of Great Expectations the photographs of this article continually make you wanting more and to turn the page and see just what it holds within.
I have always been fascinated by portraits of contrast - the innate beauty of the setup, the light, the shades, the color, the subtle interactions among them, vs the reality of what's really happening in the photo. The contrast is not shockingly blatant, nor is it staggeringly sarcastic or sad or upsetting. It is there in front your eyes, looking at you in such tranquility but such strength. I agree with the photographer that these kinds of photo shoots confuse people's brain: you want to appreciate the sheer aesthetics but at the same time you are saddened by the fact that it is the fading, the deteriorating, the destroying that stand behind. I do believe when she said she didn't see these perishing buildings as tragic. This is what artists do. They grasp the unique beauty in what they see and they create art and leaves it to the readers, viewers or audiences to interpret and understand in their own ways.
I love that all of these photos were taken with "an aging digital Nikon" while the aging buildings are basking in the noon sunlight. No filters. No extra techniques or adjustments. It's a perfect way to bring out the charm of the peeling off paints, the fading color, and the broken walls.
These pictures are beautiful. I agree with the article when it states: “As an ongoing series, Dulcis Domus is a tasteful visual compendium of ramshackle ruin porn. The images feature large and luxurious residences that have fallen into disrepair, often with pastel shades set against the unexpected greenery of nature.” After reading so many Agatha Christie books I sometimes find myself longing to visit and live in an old English manor, full of history and secrets that fascinate all who enter. These pictures show my exact feelings; longing for old time beauty but accepting that these days have past and have broken down. The soaring architecture of the manors are lovely, especially the pictures of the architecture with nature slowly creeping into frame. My eyes feast upon these images of the juxtaposition of elegance and ruin, and sadly, my heart accepts that these times have long passed me by.
This photography series is great! I would love to see it in actual print. I find it fascinating how this has no additional lighting and how the photographer focuses on patience and the quality of existing light in the room to get the right aesthetic for any one shot. I might have at one point thought that the fact that the architecture of these buildings are in such disarray was sad and even disappointing, but Pavlovic’s point that these images indicate a passage of time and changing social needs is powerful. Palaces and mansions are no longer a sign of status in the same way that they once were, and this photo series is dedicating to highlighting the fact that they are still beautiful just in a transformational sort of way. In looking through the images, I am particularly drawn to the ones where nature has somehow become a part of the interior of the building due to structural damage, almost as though the landscaping is taking back over what is now man-made.
As a long-time abandoned building enthusiast (Pinterest board at 509 pins and counting), the point that, "the architecture of these places changes and conforms to the passage of time, producing something that is not man-made nor natural," really resonated with me. This is precisely what I love about abandoned buildings, the fact that they walk the line between human creation and product of nature. I find it fascinating examining the details of where wall meets vine and marble meets soil, seeing that evidence of the Earth's inevitable force. Add in the beautiful melancholy of something left behind by its inhabitor and the storytelling ability of architecture as a witness to human life and I'm sold. What's even better is that these buildings, because they are specifically palaces, can tell so much more than the average tale. They have seen royals and they have belonged to them, and now they belong to nature once more, harboring all that history. It must be an incredibly powerful thing to walk through their halls, to smell the perfume under the moss and see that story in person. I should think it a valuable experience to a theatre artist as well, a reminder of all the elements that go into making the world of a story. Perhaps abandoned buildings and stages are not too far from one another in kind.
These photos are incredible, and ripe with potential for anyone with an overactive imagination. I can almost see families living and operating day to day in these spaces. I wish, however, that there was some acknowledgement as to where these abandoned dwellings were. Perhaps this is addressed in the exhibit itself. I am also curious to know who owns these structures, and what is intended for these buildings.
It is a shame that these places are not undergoing restoration processes. I wonder what kind of premiums European governments place on historical buildings, and what it takes for a palace to become a historical landmark and receive funds for restoration and preservation. It seems like such a waste. Furthermore, the neglect of these places comes at the potential cost of national identity, as palaces from certain periods fall to ruin and examples of architectural styles become lost. I hope this exhibit bring awareness to this tragic loss.
Seeing palaces in such a state of disrepair offers a beautiful and captivating juxtaposition. It’s amazing that the photographer accomplishes this in natural light with no filters. I think it really teaches a lesson that he was willing to get up earlier than other photographers to get the best shot that he could. The series has a certain stillness to them, one that is really elegant and raw at the same time. As the author of the article states, I don’t know whether to be sad about the state of disrepair at such amazing buildings, or to be fascinated with how decay has taken over. I would love to visit these places myself. They all seem so full of possibilities, just perfect to explore. It is amazing thinking of what these buildings looked like when people lived in them. It makes me wonder why and how these palaces got to these states in the first place.
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