Grey Gardens

I've always had a fascination with abandoned buildings. There was a period of time, actually the beginning of my photography classes, where that's pretty much all I wanted to, and did, shoot.

I look back on these photos years later, and although I don't think the images themselves are that exceptional, I can remember the allure of being there while taking the images.

On Feb 5, 2004, I wrote:

I've become obsessed with this place, and what posssibly happened to it. A torn up house I can understand. Houses get old, people move out, and the building is left to the elements. But these houses are still filled with the remains of someone's life. Books, clothing, stuffed animals, posters, coffee mugs, business cards, mail, bicycles, bottles of cleaning supplies and shampoo; these things are all still inside. It's as if the people simply disappeared right in the middle of wallpapering the kitchen, or making coffee.

The pull for me was not the space itself, but the mystery of the person who used to be there. And that's something that I could never capture with a photograph.

Grey Gardens (which I watched for the first time tonight) has captured that mystery on film. Little Edie and her mother could be those "vanished" people.





These photos of Little Edie were taken inside their mansion in 1972. (More photos of Little Edie and her mother (Big Edie) can be found here.)

More interesting than their decaying home is their decaying mental state. Both women live in a fantasy world, bickering over events of the past, while their real world fills with garbage, raccoons, and fleas.

Here are my two favorite quotes:

Little Edie, very seriously: This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today.

Little Edie: If you can't get a man to propose to you, you might as well be dead.
Big Edie: Well, I don't think it's important.
Little Edie: I think it's disgusting... for women to be alone. What are they proving? They have to go around with dogs or other women or something...
Big Edie: Dogs are lovely. I'll take a dog any day.

Oh! One more Grey Gardens tidbit, and then I'll stop, promise. A snippet of Little Edie lamenting over a lost scarf is included in the song "The Woods" by awesome Canadian band Stars which can be downloaded here (via yousendit.com).