THE MISSING BUILDINGS - THOM AND BETH ATKINSON
by Michele Amaglio
12.03.2016
London is one of the most frantic, rapid European cities. An open air construction site aimed at satisfying the needs of millions of inhabitants. Today’s London is the result of a recent past which sees as protagonists an industrial revolution and two world wars. The damages caused by nazi bombings during the second world war led to the destruction of over a million of buildings, overturning the appearance of the British capital.
Seventy years after the end of the war, London based photographers Thom and Beth Atkins decided to dedicate a special attention towards what is no longer part of London’s urban landscape, yet still leaving traces of their departed presence. The series “Missing Buildings” reveals itself as an archeological research which concentrates on the scars and ruins of a recent history. Missing Buildings is a simple idea, executed with a series of images of which the main subject is the spatial emptiness caused by the demolition of the buildings. Nonetheless, it is not to be considered only a documentation; the fading memory of the recent past seems to project itself onto the modern architecture of the city through traces which, like ghosts, still haunt the minds of those who remember. London’s scars, physically visible on the face of the buildings, seem to hold onto the rapid flow of time.
Seventy years after the end of the war, London based photographers Thom and Beth Atkins decided to dedicate a special attention towards what is no longer part of London’s urban landscape, yet still leaving traces of their departed presence. The series “Missing Buildings” reveals itself as an archeological research which concentrates on the scars and ruins of a recent history. Missing Buildings is a simple idea, executed with a series of images of which the main subject is the spatial emptiness caused by the demolition of the buildings. Nonetheless, it is not to be considered only a documentation; the fading memory of the recent past seems to project itself onto the modern architecture of the city through traces which, like ghosts, still haunt the minds of those who remember. London’s scars, physically visible on the face of the buildings, seem to hold onto the rapid flow of time.
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