Such Mean Estate #1

For his new book, Such Mean Estate, Photographer Ryan Spencer spent about two years watching dozens of disaster movies. As he went he photographed stills from these epic-destruction fests using black and white film and a polaroid land camera. Amid the spectacle  in movies like Day After Tomorrow and Resident Evil Extinction, Ryan isolated the quiet and mysterious moments that might otherwise go unappreciated amid the chaos and destruction: A tiny lone figure atop a monolithic highway overpass, the smoldering skyline of some anonymous city, the silhouette of a figure staring up at a blindingly white sky. Fifty-four of Ryan’s apocalyptic polaroids appear in  Such Mean Estate along with an appropriately haunting introductory essay by Leslie Jamison. A few weeks ago  I got a chance to meet up with Ryan at his Brooklyn apartment to talk about the book.

Such Mean Estate #10

Such Mean Estate #9

Such Mean Estate #19

Such Mean Estate #54

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