On ‘Ruin Porn’ Images Of Decaying Cities

“These photos … are not created so much out of the need to raise consciousness as out of the need to stand before these ruins in awe. It isn’t clear what you do next, after awe. … We are not ready, perhaps, to think about visiting Detroit in the same way that we would visit the Palais des Papes in Avignon. But what, really, is the difference?”