American badlands

Check Charles Cushman’s documentation of the slums of Chicago 50 years ago. Without dating the shots, there isn’t a clue to the time or era that the photographs documents, and perhaps, with black and white renditions, this is much more the case. Cushman shot with Kodachrome, state of the art until around 1980. Three shots below are Kodachromes and date back to the time when film photography, not yet realizing that digital would wipe it out, was entering its golden age of color films that would dominate over Kodachrome, but the most archival film ever made, still hung on, until 2010, when the last of the Kodachrome labs closed.

The point is abandonment, no matter the year, always looks the same.

Meaning the same social problems are managed by neglect, but never actually solved, and whose message is clear. Make money, and leave the old behind, even if it’s your home.

It’s the same with photography. When it turns into an all-digital machine, there’s still a choice, even though the world is going in another direction.