Remarkable before and after matched shots of abandoned resorts

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/12/remarkable-before-and-after-ma.html

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Somebody doesn’t know the Poconos from the Catskills…

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:raising_hand_man:

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I would guess that a large part of the job is managing to position the camera in the exact right spot.
So my question is; will future cameras, such as Lytro and the like, be able to remove this stress?
I am thinking that one could perhaps set up a cluster of such cameras and then finds the correct vantage point once one has uploaded the raw material.

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Other work by Pablo Maurer:

http://dcist.com/tags/AbandonedStates

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It would be cool to reclaim all that maple flooring from the bowling alley for residential use.

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The easiest way to do that would be to move in!

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the saddest part of his beautiful photo essay?

we seem to have lost the ability to design, build, save, or rebuild similar spaces.
No one wants large luxury resorts with style

We want cheap! Days Inn. cause we are on our way somewhere. gotta see the giant mouse!

the days of those beautiful pools, bowling alleys, architecture?

are just gone.

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How’s the wi-fi?

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Most bowling alley slabs are at least 2 1/2 inches thick and around here, reclaimed slabs like that go for about $8/sq foot. I’m shocked that nobody has come in and removed it all.

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I don’t think that the problem is one of ability. It is that deregulation has made such things hyper-capitalistic, and aesthetics don’t carry a reliably quantifiable market value. One is no longer paying for the experience, because pure experience cannot be commodified. Yet that is precisely why these aspects of life have value.

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Shouldn’t Burt Lancaster be swimming through these?

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Sadly, I see this as symbolic of the US as a whole.

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I’ve been following Pablo for years on DCist – it’s weird that he’s finally blowing up with this piece, since he’s done some other really awesome stuff. Here’s a link to all of his DCist pieces, many of which are of this nature, the rest are about MLS soccer.

I even met him once, years ago. Really nice guy.

http://dcist.com/author/Pablo%20Maurer

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Pretty sad.

It will probably happen. In my town there is a company that specializes in reclaiming this kind of material and reselling it for reuse, and recently were offering maple from a closed bowling alley for use in making tables and counters. Unfortunately, they couldn’t move it from the alley without cutting it down, so the lengths were under 10 feet.

Did you know he was in his 50s when he made that movie? You wouldn’t know it from the skinnydipping scenes.

What? Why not a Brooklyn hipster restaurant?

it’s haunting to see the bright, shiny world of my parents in such decay. all is gone.

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This.

People don’t want to spend time at a resort weaving baskets, sewing comb sheaths or practicing for the end of summer talent show. Probably the closest thing are cruises (which do have wifi) which also move around to interesting places.

All I saw was the before. Huh.