Picturing ruins: more than just a morbid fascination

Credit: itsabandoned | instragram
Credit: itsabandoned | instragram
. Credit: itsabandoned | instragram A graduate student's study of Instagram photographs of urban decline reveals humans have a deep-rooted attraction to decay. CONTENU - Click on hashtag #abandoned on Instagram and you'll find over 9 million posts. For hashtag #urbex, there are over 11 million. It's a seemingly endless supply of haunting photographs of ruins-abandoned houses in the middle of nowhere, crumbling industrial complexes overrun with weeds, ancient graveyards submerged under water. Julianne Pilon studied the "ruin porn" phenomenon for her master's thesis in communications under the supervision of Line Grenier, a professor in UdeM's Department of Communications, Faculty of Arts and Science. We spoke to Pilon to find out more.
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