Shawn G. Chittle

Web & App Designer || Photographer

Flint, Michigan

The people of Flint, Michigan often don't seem to know that they are living in what Forbes Magazine calls the most dangerous city in America. Summer concerts and block parties are often punctuated by violence - but not always - and it's an interesting mix of peoples, both black and white, who are all trying to just get by.

Coney Island, Brooklyn

Coney Island, Brooklyn, which is the best off of the three, is trying to find a balance between its last 30 years as the "people's resort" and the developers who seek to turn it into another gentrified Disney World. The recent film "Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride" captures this struggle. Watch it.

Grossinger's Resort

Times are far tougher for the Grossinger's luxury resort in the Catskills near Liberty, NY. Once the borscht belt destination, it abruptly closed in 1986. Nature is recapturing it, one green, moldy square-foot at a time. The place is a time capsule of the 1960s and 1970s; totally abandoned, but they left everything in its place. It's as if a rapture of sorts stole everyone from their hotel room, spa, dinner table, or pool chair. There is no more eerie place that I've ever been to in the world.

These photographs are of people and places that were once emblematic of the height of civilization in the United States. Their fall is a reminder that change is the only constant in life.

See more of Shawn's photos here.