This
page contains a bibliography of photo books, novels, essays and movies dealing with
abandoned places somehow. The books with this icon |
Photographic books
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Gabriele Basilico Esplorazione
di fabbriche Testi di Massimo Negri Electa (1989) |
| A photo book for industrial archaeology fans. Basilico’s shoots document, according to the typical aseptic style of the author, the architecture of the old textile factories in Biella, Italy. |
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Catalogo regionale dei beni culturali dell'Umbria Un modello catalografico per l'archeologia industriale Electa |
| The books in this collection are an example of how to create a catalogue project of industrial archaeology properties. This volume sets the pattern and proposes examples. For those interested I'll supply the link to the school Galilei where is an exausting inventory of what has been published in Italy and abroad about industrial archaeology: I.T.I.S Galilei. |
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Catalogo regionale dei beni culturali dell'Umbria Le Officine Bosco di Terni Electa |
| While an other volume of the same collection is a practical example of cataloging , concerning the metallurgical factories in Terni, Italy. The picturesof past e recent repertories are a mere documentary grounding in the rebuilding of appearance of the factories. |
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Catalogo regionale dei beni culturali dell'Umbria Lo Zuccherificio di Foligno Electa |
| The third volume of the collection concerns the sugar mill in Foligno, Italy. Same remarks applies as the previous book. |
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Luca Campigotto Molino Stucky con un testo di Massimo Cacciari Marsilio (1997) |
| At last different
book from the others!Campigotto tells us the great solitude of the old Venetian building
through black & white large format shots expressing love and attention to aesthetic
details. The quotation opening the book is from G.G.Marquez:"...among the asphyxiating bush brushwood...we discovered in the lonely sanctuary the ruins of grandeur". |
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Venezia Marghera a cura di Paolo Costantini CHARTA (1997) |
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| 15 Italian
photographers interpret the industrial zone of Porto Marghera in Venice, Italy. The book contains superb pictures of abandoned sites. Some pictures are simple documents while others are movings. |
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Haunter of Ruins The photography of A bulfinch press book (1997) |
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| This surrealist American photographer, haunter of ruins and cemeteries, is probably among the first to be interested in abandoned buildings (1940), which he almost always describes as being haunted by worrying female presences. |
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In
ruins Photographs by Simon Marsden Text by Duncan McLaren A bulfinch press book (1997) |
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| Irish ruins are already superb themselves, but in this book they are even more exciting using infrared film. Beside every picture of building there is a short historical account. |
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ABANDONED Photographs by William D. Adams TG Press (1986) |
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| This photographer too, like the previous one, uses infrared film, but his prints are next sepia tonee and sometimes hand coloured; the result is even more weird. Shoots deal with abandoned farms in America. |
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Desert Cantos Richard Misrach The University of New Mexico press 1990 |
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| There is a most
recent book on this same subject: "Crimes and
Splendors:the desert cantos of Richard Misrach" (Bulfinch Press Book 1998);the
part dealing with abandoned places, the 3rd Canto (The Flood), is dealt with better here. The wise use of large format makes unforgettable some pictures of this volume. |
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LOST
RUSSIA Willam Craft Brumfield duke university press (1995) |
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| Even if they aren’t bursting with originality and beauty, the shoots in this volume are testimonary of architecture, unusual for us, of Russia. The abandoned building are mostly churches. |
Novels and works of criticism
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Ninjalicious Infiltration Pickering, Ontario |
| A magazine that "offers a mix of the practice and theory of urban exploration in areas not designed for public usage". For their address click here |
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Julio Llamazares La pioggia gialla
Einaudi Nuovi Coralli (1988) |
| The description of the contemporary death of a village in Pirenei mountains and its last inhabitant. The birthplace of the author, who won the Nonino prize in 1998 thanks to this novel, was flooded by an artificial lake. |
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Francesco Orlando Gli oggetti desueti nelle immagini della letteratura Rovine, reliquie, raritą, robaccia, luoghi inabitati e tesori nascosti Einaudi Paperbacks Letteratura |
| The technical part is beyond my comprehension, but the literary quotations in this book are filling my site |
Movies
| Nostalghia | Directed by Tarkovskj (1983) |
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| The trip through Italy of a
Russian poet, his meetings, his dreams, his nostalgia. There is a long sequence taken in the S.Vittorino church. You can also see S.Galgano, a church with the grass inside, Bagno Vignoni, a village with sulphur water instead of the main square and other strange places of Italy |
| Stalker | Directed by Tarkovskj (1979) |
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| The trip through an alien
abandoned area of three men searching for the Room where desires were fulfilled. All the movie is a tribute to the desolation: water, rust and overgrowth. |
| The Pointsman | Directed by Jos Stelling (1986) |
| A woman gets off the
train by mistake and the only person she meets is the pointsman who doesn't speak her
language. In the the last scenes there are a lot of good shots about the abandoned railway station. |
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