{"id":7834,"date":"2010-08-16T16:30:23","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T23:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=912"},"modified":"2010-08-16T16:30:23","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T23:30:23","slug":"abandoned-matinees-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7834","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Matinees II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Marquee_c_s.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-896\" title=\"Marquee_c_s\" src=\"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Marquee_c_s.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a>This week\u2019s Abandoned Matinees focuses on a pair of French  photographers with a fascination for things once elegant, and now seemingly  irreparably destroyed by the elements of water, apathy, and repurposing.<\/p>\n<p>In <strong>The Ruins of  Detroit <\/strong>(announced for print, but excerpted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marchandmeffre.com\/detroit\/index.html\" target=\"window\">online<\/a>), photographers Yves Marchand and  Romain Mefre showed the tarnished elegance of Detroit\u2019s corporate and economic buildings  from interior shots, but perhaps the most haunting were views of the  active and populated sections of main streets through the blown-out windows of  derelict towers, now giant works of architectural art that stand as ghosts &#8211; too  solid to crumble into total ruin because they were built with far too much care.  (A related piece on the photo-essay was published at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/11\/t-magazine\/11talk-brubach-t.html?_r=1\" target=\"window\">Ruin  with a View<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Their more recent project covers former U.S. movie  palaces, some of which have new lives as churches, furniture storage, or swap  meet stands, while others appear as gems awaiting secondary lives as  entertainment houses \u2013places where the spirit of these buildings could would once  again find joy in being appreciated by the people they were meant to serve.<\/p>\n<p>Other buildings aren\u2019t so lucky. Detroit\u2019s United Artists Theater, for example,  is a devastating example of horrific neglect; it\u2019s as though its owners are  stubbornly determined to let natural elements destroy the once-palatial  theatre, but it just won\u2019t freakin\u2019 die.<\/p>\n<p>The work of Marchand and Mefre is showcased via the New York  Times (see \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/lens.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/21\/showcase-165\/\" target=\"window\">Tattered  Palaces<\/a>\u201d) as well as their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marchandmeffre.com\/theaters\/index.html\" target=\"window\">own website<\/a>, and  if that final image of the United Artist Theater interior leaves you with an  intense desire to see more (oh, it\u2019ll hurt\u2026), you can find images of its  current state at Flickr, courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/allanm\/51481919\/in\/set-1118433\/\" target=\"window\">Alan  Machielse<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/snweb\/420690108\/in\/photostream\/\" target=\"window\">SNWEB.ORG  Photography<\/a> (starting with rooftop views of Detroit before views of the  building interiors).<\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forgottendetroit.com\/uat\/index.html\" target=\"window\">Forgotten Detroit<\/a>,  which offers a photo-essay on the theatre\u2019s glory years, a detailed  chronological essay at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buildingsofdetroit.com\/places\/ua\" target=\"window\">Buildings  of Detroit<\/a>, and the UA Theater\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/unitedartiststheater\" target=\"window\">MySpace<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unitedartiststheatre\" target=\"window\">Facebook<\/a> pages. Seriously.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>,  Editor<br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kqek.com\/Main_Index_Page.htm\">KQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second installment highlights the work of photographer Yves Marchand and Romain Mefre&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[13],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-22m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}