City of ghosts: Haunting abandoned buildings of St Louis after the city's population FELL by 70 per cent in a century

By Laura Pullman
PUBLISHED: 16:46, 6 July 2012 | UPDATED: 21:28, 6 July 2012
With boarded up windows, peeling paint and crumbling bricks these deserted St.Louis buildings have been long forgotten.
Residents seem to have fled years ago and the dilapidated properties now serve as a bleak reminder of the Missouri city's declining population and struggling industry.  
However, one local photographer - keen to highlight the problems facing the Gateway City - is now drawing attention to the abandoned buildings.

Slum beautiful: In his 'Slum Beautiful' project, photographer Demond Meek travelled around his home city of St.Louis capturing abandoned and dilapidated buildings

Abandoned: Meek explains that he wanted to focus on run-down buildings that were 'once considered beautiful or treasures'

Deserted: Meek was inspired to 're-explore' St.Louis after attending a meeting about tackling the city's urban issues

In ruins: There are approximately 6,000 abandoned buildings in the Missouri city which has seen a declining population over the last 60 years

Photographer Demond Meek was inspired to turn his lens to the run down buildings after attending an event that focused on tackling urban issues in St.Louis.

 

In the project, entitled Slum Beautiful, Meek travelled around his hometown seeking out the abandoned buildings armed only with his iPhone.
‘I wanted to focus on the buildings that were once considered beautiful or treasures - a few of which could be fixed up with a little bit of love,’ he explained to the MailOnline. 

Boarded up: Meek took pictures of the empty properties using his iPhone then uploaded them onto Instagram

Forgotten: The deserted homes provide oddly beautiful pictures but tell a sad story of a struggling city

Empty: Meek says that some of the buildings he took photos of have been demolished since he began the Slum Beautiful project in March

Although the buildings in an area called Old North provide surprisingly beautiful photographs, Meek also hopes to highlight a serious issue – the declining population and industry of St.Louis.
St.Louis' suburbanisation began in the 1950s when the city's wealthier residents moved to live outside the city, and businesses promptly followed them.
Sixty years on, the decades of fleeing residents has left areas of St.Louis in a poor state, ‘socially, physically and economically,’ the artist says.
Taking snaps of some of the city’s reported 6,000 abandoned buildings, Meek then edits the pictures before uploading them onto the photo-sharing site, Instagram, where they have created a stir. 

Bleak: Beginning in the 1950s,  wealthier residents in St.Louis moved out of the city to live in the suburbs causing large areas of St.Louis to fall into decline

Former grandeur: Some of the properties would have once been grand homes

Haunting: St.Louis was the nation's fourth largest country in the late 19th century; today it is the 58th largest with a population of little over 300,000

In the late 19th century St.Louis was the fourth largest in the country with a population of more than one million.
Today it is the 58th largest city in the U.S. with a population just topping 300,000.
Since beginning the project back in March, Meek reports that some of the buildings he photographed have begun to fall down properly or have been knocked down intentionally. 

Glory days: St.Louis was once the fourth largest city in the U.S. boasting a population of more than one million. This picture shows the city in 1904, when it hosted the Olympic Games; seen centre is Miss Alice Roosevelt,daughter of the President, who watches the events

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169773/Stunning-photographs-transform-St-Louis-landscape-crumbling-buildings-abandoned-homes-slum-beautiful-art.html#ixzz1zsmfxs20