“I know this isn’t Stockholm or Florence,” says Tyler,

Tidewater Eyesores | Old Gas | uploaded April 14, 2008

whose flickr profile is called Tidewater Eyesores and whose flickr group goes by the same name. “But at some point people in those cities realized that they shouldn’t disregard their history and keep building over it in order to woo tourists and keep lots of plumbers, carpenters, and various other handymen busy.”

Amen, Mr. Eyesores.

Tyler, and the 51 other members of the flickr group Tidewater Eyesores, are devoted to photographing and sharing sad little scenes found all over the Seven Cities. Suburban decay, decrepit old houses, revolting signage, and empty expanses of broken concrete are all fodder for the photo pool. “I’m also a fan of late 90′s fake art-deco architecture, huge blank walls, vast parking lots, abandoned gas stations, and horrible landscaping,” says Tyler.

Tidewater Eyesores | Between Atlantic and Pacific | uploaded October 3, 2007

The pool includes 268 images of forsaken places; mundane moments; and plain ugliness in Tidewater. I’d be the first to agree that developers in this area seem to share a disdain for historical architecture and are much more apt to raze a building to the ground rather than build into the countless empty lots that are already everywhere.

But I actually find something in these photographs that is sadly beautiful. Something so like what Dorothea Lange saw in the migrant farmers of Dust Bowl America. Something not so dissimilar from what Hopper saw in the diners and office buildings of New York. Something akin to Yves Marchand’s and Romain Meffre’s photo essay of rotting Detroit buildings for Time Magazine.

Whether they’re prodding for change or just ironic little snaps of ugly local eyesores, this is a photo-set worth glancing at, if simply to see frames of our moment in time.

Click to view flickr group Tidewater Eyesores’ photo pool.

Dorothea Lange | San Francisco, Calif., Mar. 1942

Edward Hopper | The Night Window | 1928

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre | Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline