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.