I recently came across this picture on Flickr of a playground near the Ensfield Power Station in Brimsfield, England, a suburb outside of London. It’s been generously made available by the photographer, PysProblems, through the Creative Commons License. He’s a Gen Xer, by the way, and titled the photo “End of the World.”
Photographer’s Cutline: “God, if I grew up playing here I don’t know what effect it’d have on my mental health (not that I didn’t grow up about 5 mins down the road – but that was in the bucolic 80’s).”
The photographer has a blog and he’s written about the popularity of the photo. He says he’s published many beautiful pictures on Flickr (check out this one!), but this photo, which he describes as grey and depressing, receives the most attention.
I find this image totally disturbing – it just says to me kids are a low low low priority in this neighbourhood and a childhood is a disposable commodity – blah – hugs Jen le xox
Even I, who loves industrial technology, find this photo depressing. I can’t really explain why except that it seems a scene out of bleak futuristic novel.