Recently my neighborhood has started to change drastically and dramatically. I cannot recognize it anymore. It seems neither corners of the streets nor familiar structures stand where they used to. Buildings disappear. The rubble and debris after demolition pile behind green fences. My surroundings are rapidly changing due to aggressive gentrification.
This project was born from those observations and a genuine, naive disagreement with somehow inevitable change brought by big money and by hipster neighbors.
I photographed buildings that were once important parts of their communities: a police precinct, a movie theater, a temple, a courthouse etc. What drove me to them was their rich architectural and social history. A feeling of melancholy and a longing for something with essence were two forces that directed my extensive research in the hunt for meaningful structures. The buildings chosen will soon be gone, converted into generic condos without soul, and with their eradication the history of a community will be erased forever.
I used 35mm film as the medium for my project as I wanted to have a physical representation of soon-‐to-‐be gone reality. I cut negatives and made composites under an enlarger in order to create my version of fantastic buildings. Then I became the building developer by redeveloping my prints in mordançage solution to recreate forgotten and hidden poetic spaces to commemorate their bygone history, glory and beauty.
I’m not sentimental about my subject. It is pointless. I simply created a fairytale vision of past relicts in order to preserve their souls in final moments. Maybe those buildings will be gone tomorrow, but they will live on in my images as long as fiber paper can last.
