Photographing a City That Stopped Changing: A Decade of Suburban Decay

Juan Rodríguez Morales spent ten years capturing suburban decay.

He photographed two towns just outside Madrid that feel like they’ve stopped moving. There are people, houses, and shops, but something about the rhythm of life feels slow, quiet, and repetitive. Morales grew up in one of these places, so he knows their mood well. His photos are about what it feels like when nothing really changes.

He started the project after reading a comic called Ghost World.

It showed suburban streets that reminded him of home, ordinary, a little sad, and somehow stuck in time. That was more than a decade ago, and since then he has walked the same streets again and again with his camera. What he found was a feeling of being in between, of waiting for something that never comes. This photo essay is about that feeling, the slow story behind these photos, and what Juan learned after spending ten years in places most people pass through without noticing.

Ghost World by Juan Rodríguez Morales  

I grew up in a town near a big city. It is Alcobendas, a small town located next to Madrid, the capital of Spain. Although its name doesn’t really matter, all the towns around the capital are more or less the same. Before becoming a big urban centre, these cities were small towns during the sixties, where many people came from all over the country with the idea of working in the capital. Since then, they have undergone enormous changes. Their population has grown exponentially, and most of these cities are around 100,000 inhabitants. They have quality public services, entertainment, and a more than remarkable standard of living. However, despite the development, life seems to have come to a standstill. Important things happen a few miles away in the now big city; however, in what are now considered the suburbs, no one seems to be aware of life outside. It seems that the energy has moved to the large shopping malls surrounding the city, leaving it empty, hollow. Everyone seems to be just passing through, either to go to the capital for work or to spend the weekend shopping. In the placid suburbs, life goes on normally, and even a strange feeling of boredom and melancholy pervades everything.

The photos that make up this series belong to two cities separated only by a street and where I have spent most of my life: Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes. Since 2013, I have been photographing their streets and their inhabitants. Their story is the same as the rest of the cities surrounding the big cities. A story of placidity but also of melancholy and boredom. This series tries to capture those feelings.

You describe the suburbs as quiet and a little sad, even though they are full of people. What kind of feelings do you hope your photos show about these places?

Suburban cities tend to be very similar places. There are hardly any elements that differentiate one city from another. In general, they are quiet and somehow melancholic places. The challenge I faced in doing this project was how to show that boredom and melancholy with images that were interesting but reflected those feelings.

You’ve been photographing Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes for over ten years. What changes have you noticed in the streets or people during that time?

During these years, I have seen how a slow decadence has settled in these two towns. The crisis of 2008 affected both cities significantly, and I believe that they have not yet fully recovered. It has not been something abrupt but rather progressive. Alcobendas reached its zenith of development around 2007, but from then on, it has been gradually settling into decline. Just look at the number of empty stores that you find throughout the city that have been closed for years. I also believe that the opening of several shopping centres in the outskirts of the city has made the city hollow, and the leisure offer has moved away from the downtown.

You say that life in the suburbs feels like it has stopped. What made you want to keep photographing this kind of slow or quiet life?

The origin of this project is in the comic of the same title and created by the cartoonist Daniel Clowes. In that comic, set in a suburban city in the United States, the protagonists wandered through places that seemed to me very similar to my own city, Alcobendas. That was the spark that started the project and to which I have dedicated ten years. In between, I have done other projects, but I always came back to Ghost World. I guess being my own city and knowing it well, I felt that there was always a new image that I should take with my camera.

How did your background in psychology help you see or understand the emotions in these places, and do you think it changes the way you take photos?

That’s a good question. I had never considered that my psychology studies could influence the way I photograph. However, everything we do and are is reflected in what we create. I guess I’m good at capturing the emotions of both people and places. I guess that’s partly due to my psychology studies.