Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Strange News From Another Star


St. Blaize has kindly sent me this link to Jonathon Haeber's amazing flickr site featuring photographs of the recently abandoned Neverland ranch. Tragic, ghoulish and macabre in equal measure really, especially the stone bas relief depicting Jackson leading the children of the world into the grounds of his spooky mansion.

The photograph above is of the entrance to the private railway station, the sort of toy/folly beloved of 19th century European aristocrats. There is much to be said for the idea of the picturesque garden as a narcissistic fantasy placing the owner at the centre of a shrunken, ersatz depiction of the world. Wacko Jacko's is merely a belated example albeit with more uncomfortable and unpleasant contemporary associations. And one that has been even quicker to ruination.

2 comments:

Blaize said...

Thanks for linking these. Share the creepiness! Maybe if more people look at these, it will somehow mystically wear the eerie unsettling qualities of the photos down, so that the feeling of dread I get looking at them will moderate to a mere niggling shiver.

Charles Holland said...

Happy to oblige! Nothing like a nice niggling shiver to keep you permanently unnerved.