I love photos like those in this slideshow, depicting abandoned gas stations and the growth that takes them over. Particularly jarring to see the tree growing out of the old gas pump.
It reminds me of the work of Edward Burtynsky, who has some absolutely stunning images of giant quarries, mines, refineries, even China's Three Gorges Dam -- a project that, like the Grand Canyon, is so massive it is impossible to grasp on film without seeing it in person. The quarry photos are incredible -- you can click on the images to open a higher-res version that really brings the photos to life.
As he describes it, the images are meant to evoke "the dilemma of our modern existence":
"We are drawn by desire -- a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times."
There is the environmental angle, of course, but what I love about this sort of photography is how many themes you can let play in your head. Reminds me of our pass through Cairo (how I wish I had my good camera for that trip!).
For the gas stations, there is the passage of time, the relics and logos of our past (and childhood?), the shifting trends, fortunes and demographics of cities and suburbs, how kids make use of things that are trash to adults. Even a "what happens when we don't weed" motif -- outside of your walk or your neighbor's peer pressure, it's actually not all that bad! Certainly better than the old fuel station it's covering up.
If I'm not mistaken, the reason there are so many abandoned gas stations (as opposed to abandoned Starbuck's) is because the environmental clean-up/excavation cost of repurposing an old fuel station site is much, much greater than any other old retail space. Which is food for thought itself.
For the quarry and dumps photos, there is naturally (ha) the awe of volume when contemplating the billions of human consumers. But there's also the sheer scale of it all, that turns trucks into little toy specs at the bottom of a quarry. And the frightening sense that some of these images have an aesthetic beauty.
When we encounter a great landscape that was created by giant glaciers violently scraping the land millions of years ago, we are overcome by its natural beauty. But when we encounter a strikingly similar anomaly in the landscape created by a violence of our own doing -- years of harvesting ore, rock or whatever the resource -- it creates a different feeling entirely.
As Burtynsky points out, it doesn't change our mind about wanting "the good life," but it does give us pause about how we achieve it. A bit from a sardonic comedian -- I forget who -- joke about the silliness of "saving the planet." Because the planet is doing just fine: It will still be here and doesn't need saving -- it's us who are gonna be f*cked!
Which is both precisely the point and beside the point at the same time (a dual feat it seems only comedy can pull off): "Saving the planet" isn't about literally saving the planet, but rather extending our ability to use and coexist with it.
Which is why, in this peak oil era, it's long overdue that we invest our motives and capital in renewable energy sources (and later: population policies? the conversation will need to happen eventually). Sources like water, wind and the Sun. Which, incidentally, is the biggest fuel station of them all and the one thing we know for certain* will eventually doom the planet in a few billion years, whether we're still around or not.
*er, um, that's "just a theory." The solar system is only 6,000 years old. I said believe, dammit!
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
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, depicting abandoned gas stations and the growth that takes them over. Particularly jarring to see the 
February, 2008