Everyday Wonderland



This is Modernism.  This is Gothic.  Characteristics of Realism blasted away by the magical, sublime, unreal.  Isn't it bloody beautiful?

Let us imagine living in this place for a moment.  The walls are deteriorating, the concrete floors are filthy.  I don't see any heating vents or an air conditioning unit.  Not to mention the bathroom appears to be placed in the main living area. And what do we think the view through that window will reveal?  Probably another brick wall from another towering building.  Don't look down unless you want to see a bum pissing in the alleyway.

Cade Martin manages with one click (probably through the process of thousands of clicks) of a camera to break away from this real place.  An apartment who's resident probably dreads coming home at night, turns into a wonderland. 

So what makes this image- and the other images from Martin's website- Gothic?  Not unlike the paint chipping away to unveil the brick that lies underneath, Martin manages to place an extraordinary moment in an ordinary setting to break us out of what we would usually see.

I guess in my quest to understand the Gothic, I have come to see it as a huge contrast between realism and the mystical.  Martin successfully illustrates this contrast in this photograph.

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