(2) The intact marquee and sign of the defunct Gem movie theater. (1) Three Pentax K1000 images of the Gem movie theater. What could bring a place like Cairo back to its former glory? I guess the distance between what it used to be and the reality of it now is the greatest I have seen, a place once prosperous and vital now utterly without a hope. I come across a surprising amount of ghost towns on my journeys, but none has been as striking to me as Cairo, Illinois. In my case, it was the ruins of the old movie theater, the “Gem,” where I experienced that paradoxical pull of not wanting to stop photographing its miraculously intact marquee while staring through the broken windows into its vandalized interior. The historical district, which has had blocks and blocks of buildings entirely demolished, is a place where any photographer can simultaneously go crazy with the shooting opportunities and feel heartbroken at the sheer sadness of a place that is no more. (3) Below, a detail from the building, taken with a Lomo Sprocket Rocket. A beautiful, albeit long-abandoned building in the historic district of Cairo. (1-2) A bar, one of the few remaining businesses in Cairo.
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