400 words on Marchand and Meffree

Marchand and Meffree

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre are known for their photographs of a once thriving Detroit, however Marchand explained it as tho "Detroit has been left to die". However, Marchand managed to make Detroit come back to life as he took the chance ass an opportunity to photograph the ruins. Marchand showed his passions by explaining it as though "You have entered a lost world and was almost overwhelming". There is a sense of vulnerability that seeps through their photos of movie houses, ballrooms and baroque theatres, that I feel is what makes the picture come alive. Marchand and Meffre have always taken pictures together since they met in 2002. 

Their photographs have been framed with many different angles. Some images are straight on or focused on one particular item. Some are just contain an empty room that allows the deteriation to stand out, whereas some have objects places around the room. The majority of their work is based around dereliction, which involves objects in some rooms which look distorted and ruined, however they look part of the picture. I believe this is how they stumbled upon the areas, however I wouldn't be surprised if they had placed the objects themselves as the composition allows each object to stand out and tell a story. Even thought the background has the same qualities as the objects, the objects tend to stand out more, as they are places closer in the more, and this allows the viewer to think deeper about what they're seeing e.g. who's objects were they? How old are they? How much are they worth?
The content of the image is very obvious, which is this passing time of dereliction. Nature being nature. I do think this highlights some life issues, because if people stumbled across their pictures they may not know these are photo's of abandoned places in Detroit. Not knowing this knowing knowledge could lead them to think that it's someone current home, that people are not getting access to some of the opportunities that others may get.
I get a feel of sadness form the photo;'s, as it's a shame something so nice has been left to fade away, however there is an element of excitement there as this allows them to show the beauty of dereliction, that not everything that is brand new and well in tact is the most beautiful thing, that actually something a lot older and more "real" is the honest beauty.

400 words on James Griffioen

James Griffioen

Born February 4^th 1977, James Griffioen is an American writer and photographer who resides in Detroit, Michigan. His work has featured in magazines such as Vice magazine, Architecture magazine and the New York magazine.

Detroit is popular with many landscape and architectural photographers as the location is renowned for its striking deterioration. Detroit is still the 11^th most popular cities in America, even with as many as 10,000 abandoned structures.

His pictures of the abandoned structures highlight life issues such as the culture and the economy. These are apparent through the buildings actually being left to deteriorate, instead of fixing them up to become something modern. This also allows us to look into Detroits culture, as they don’t seem to be a modern city, they are not based around skyscrapers, or having streamlined glass towers as work offices. This could also highlight their aims to help the environment. Less architecture and construction work leads to less congestion. Griffioens work also highlights the environment through his use of colour, as there is an awful lot of green in his images, so this gives me the impression that he is trying to show that the environment is taking over. The subject matter is of course the building in the photography, but also the environment around it. The landscape around it acts almost as a border to highlight the main object even more. The subject matter is immediately obvious, as the use of his straight forward composition allows the viewers attention to go straight to the building. 

The piece has been framed with a straight on, close up view. Some tend to be more close up than others, partly because the landscape around some of these buildings has more content. In some ways, his work is quite basic, just a straight on picture of a derelict building, however this builds up a rhythm in his work, as people know what to expect and this allows it to become more recognisable. The saying "less is more" tends to spring to mind when I see his work, as he doesn't over do it, or take the purpose away from the image. The simplicity allows the viewers attention to be direct, and think into more of what they're seeing, as opposed to being sidetracked by something irrelevant. I do think the overall arrangement of the piece is pleasing to the eye, however I think it could be more exaggerated e.g. more use of different camera angles, or close up parts of the building.
In some ways the image has been "planned", because Griffioen obviously had intentions of what he wanted to photograph, however there is an element and a feel of spontaneity because each picture is original. To add more depth to his images he could have photographed on different times of days, capturing the sunrise and sunset. Whether the whole place looks different at night? The images do remind me of a storybook, especially of a witches house. Furthermore, they make me want to travel, and experience seeing other cultures and opening my eyes to other peoples surroundings. His photo's have been taken with a digital camera, however some appear to be enhanced within photoshop as they seem sharper, and the colours are more bolder.