Return to Gallery Order Print
Click to purchase: White House Ruins #2

Technical Data:

Description:

Canon Rebel XTi

Canon EF-s 10-22 @ 16mm

1/13s, f/8.0, ISO 100

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, AZ
October 8, 2009

I wonder how many of our current structures will be around as long as these cliff dwellings.

Will future generations take tours of the ruins of our currently great cities?

We shouldn't kid ourselves and assume that what we see now will be around forever. Cities change and move and, in particular, our society loves tearing down the old only to rebuild upon it.

This, along with our digital world, mean that nothing now is permanent. Will future generations even have anything to which they can look back, or will we just be a question mark in a history book?

The beauty of an analog system, such as film, is that any human can look at it and interpret it without the need of algorithms and codecs. It just exists.

And why, exactly, do we feel the need to tear down a building just because it's 50 years old? At what point does a building cease to have actual value and gain intrinsic value?

What makes this pile of stones on a cliff so valuable that my house doesn't have?