Photographer Creates Surreal Images Of The Housing Crisis

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Michael Jantzen
Image courtesy of Michael Jantzen

Designer Michael Jantzen plays with perspective both literally and figuratively. 

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His photo collection, "Deconstructing the Houses," rotates parts of buildings to give the appearance of fragmentation. Doing so is meant to change our view of McMansions from lifelong investment to money pit.

"I picked out houses that were very large and expensive to work with," he told Business Insider in an interview. "The idea that these very expensive places, so many of which are in foreclosure, struck me. I wanted to play with the idea of stability." 

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"I started with a series of churches, but some people thought I was abusing the image of the church and turning it into the image of a cartoon," said Jantzen.

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Then he turned his lens to to the American McMansion.

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"The idea is that people who own them have so much money they'll be more stable than a less expensive home," he said. "So I wanted to play with the idea of stability."

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He accomplished this by "playing with ways of altering the image," he said. "I simply rotated parts of the structure so that the background stayed intact but the image was altered."

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The first images were literally cut out with a knife and rotated by hand.

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Reactions from the press and art fans have been mixed. "Some people look at it purely as a visual, graphic thing, others look at it as a social statement," said the artist.

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"A lot happens psychologically when you begin to deconstruct the images. But I'm not too focused on that," said Jantzen. "It's left up to the viewer to interpret what they want."

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"Our most precious ideas are always up for change, and are always changing. I think that's a good thing," said Jantzen. "Nothing is here forever, everything is in flux."

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A recent Trulia study found more Americans were setting their sights on McMansions. However, our dreams might be bigger than our budgets.

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The average McMansion is 3,200 square feet or more. Today's inventory of homes—most of which were foreclosures—are only 800-2,000 square feet.

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Source: Business Insider 

Funny how much can change after a housing crisis.

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