The economic crisis has hit and continues to affect commercial areas in cities with businesses forced to close on a daily basis. No area is immune, not even those located in close proximity to a city centre’s historic business district. Both traditional and new businesses are suffering during this economic slowdown.
The economic crisis has hit and continues to affect commercial areas in cities, with businesses forced to close on a daily basis. No area is immune, not even those located in close proximity to a city centre’s historic business district. Both traditional and new businesses are suffering during this economic slowdown.
“Crack” is a series of photographs of the city of León, showing a landscape that is easily extrapolated to any Spanish city, and aims to visually encapsulate the existing crisis at a glance.
The idea for the project was conceived whilst walking around and observing the town. Upon discovering a huge number of closed businesses throughout the city, it was decided that the final project would contain one hundred photos, all taken throughout February 2013.
This is not meant to be a cadastral survey, rather it aims to represent a moment in space and time of the photographed premises, which are a symbolic representation of all the Spanish businesses that in recent years have had to put an end to the dream that once spurred them.
What were once colourful and bright windows displaying cherished objects and fluorescent posters today have become grey and threadbare, their existence assaulted by superimposed billboards, punctuated with signs of assaults on their locks. This series reflects the progressive depression that has transformed large areas of commercial activity into neighborhoods replete with dirt, debris and decay. Who knows, perhaps we are just one step away from turning our country into Paul Auster’s Country of Last Things.
Web: http://pabloga.com/es/fotografia/crack/
