Dystopian Urban Images

[Gresto]

A photograph that has haunted me ever since I saw it years ago, around the time it was published as part of a series in The Atlantic called "Documerica", is the first one below, a striking hellscape in Cleveland that was the Clark Ave bridge over a valley of industry, with commuters passing through with apparent apathy. The photo was taken in July, 1973. The bridge no longer exists, along with most of the poisonous smokestacks, but, interestingly, the photo was taken a couple of blocks away from the house from "A Christmas Story", which is a source of nostalgia for many, and a tourist attraction.

Photo credit: Frank J. Aleksandrowicz


Another apocalyptic shot is the one below, taken in the Bronx in the early-'70s. Photographer unknown. Link to site with more photos of 1970s NYC.



Then there are tragic, repulsive photos of people swimming in rivers of garbage, like the boy below, in a Manila slum. Link to article about children living in these slums.
Photo credit: Romeo Ranoco




Please add urban images you have found especially harrowing or memorable in their desolation.

[Murphy de la Sucre]

almost easy to find, just search The Pulitzer Prizes...

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

How about a video instead?

Tear Gas Tuesday in Portland: An Investigation by Forensic Architecture

Fascism is pretty dystopian.

[Gresto]

A couple more from the Documerica collection that I find fascinatingly grim, but there are so many others, and from elsewhere in the world.

A train on the Southern Pacific Railroad passes a five-acre pond, which was used as a dump site by area commercial firms, near Ogden, Utah, in April of 1974. The acid water, oil, acid clay sludge, dead animals, junked cars and other dump debris were cleaned up by several governmental groups under the supervision of the EPA. Some 1,200,000 gallons of liquid were pumped from site, neutralized and taken to a disposal site.

Photo credit: Bruce McAllister/NARA

An illegal dumping area, seen just off the New Jersey Turnpike, facing Manhattan across the Hudson River, in March of 1973. To the south is the landfill area of the proposed Liberty State Park -- which was built and opened in 1976.

Photo credit: Gary Miller/NARA



The entire Documerica collection, which was commissioned by the EPA between 1971 and 1977, can be found here.

[Busy Bee]

These deserve a crying indian.

[Gresto]

I can't find a photographer name, but it was posted here. It's a Dubai suburb. This is not urban decay, but if you live here, you might as well be dead.

[Gresto]

The juxtaposition of enormous wealth with abject destitution. Manhattan, 1970.

Photo credit: Camilo José Vergara



Below: Norilsk, Russia. No photographer name found.

[Architype]

Good subject, but I don't have anything that dystopian to post from Canada.

[Gresto]

I'll see if I can dig up anything, Architype. I find photos like this absolutely fascinating, especially ones from the '70s, for whatever reason. You look at the first one, from Cleveland, and think, how can anyone blithely drive through that hellscape day after day? I'm picturing cars full of careworn 55-year-old chain-smoking middle managers with pocket protectors.

Mississauga is quite dystopian, only because it is an example of horrendous planning: a city developing around a sprawling mall. Almost everything in Mississauga is an incongruity. Ad hoc city planning.

Oh, here's another sad one, this time from Mumbai. How can anyone, let alone a child, be left to live like this? Photo by ParaMike46.



From the same page, which is full of astonishing shots, this Hong Kong shot, which a commenter succinctly called "Human storage units". Photo credit: QAFY



Also from the same site, two more, these in China; the first, of Chongqing, is by biwook, the second, of Zhūzhōu, by adamlm.
You know you're living in an overcrowded city if that four-storey ramp exists, and within spitting distance of apartments. And for the second one, I have no words, but those are four private houses (wealthy Chinese?) comically slapped down onto a shopping mall. Congrats to the owners?





Much like the last one, but even more repulsive, this one from Bangalore, India (by spinafrakejo):