Monomad: The Collapse of Society, Nature's Reclaiming of Land

With my walks as of late, I have noticed I have had more depressive thoughts as my feet find themselves in the shadows of an era long gone. I have always been fascinated by history, and there's a realisation that has come to me in such locations: I was lied to. Looking back, I never really did learn much about this side of the world in school and the media. The things we heard were the negatives, the ways in which governments caused intense suffering upon its people and other nations. The whole idea that one side is good, and the other is bad. Never the positives and ideologies among its citizens and creatives that explored new ways of thinking and trying to push humanity forward into a more peaceful stance. Naturally, there's always disagreements, attempts to grab more power and to disrupt those with ideologies that are different. The disconnect between the east and the west is a prime example of this, particularly in how the Soviet Union was seen as the west's greatest enemy, then with its inevitable collapse partially manufactured by the west itself in attempt to turn the Soviets into more 'friendly' and capitalist thinking people. The problem even today is that to defend that era to any capacity is to be seen with the assumption of supporting the communist mindset.

A lot of the time as I roam through this part of the world, I see the decayed leftovers of the past. A lot of this boils down to just factories and big propaganda signs that are found from the cities and deep in the countryside, in which small towns would've heavily relied on the production of all sorts of things to make a bit of a living and feed themselves. However, sometimes you come across these elements of entertainment that serve as reminders as to how much society has lost its way. To some coincidence, a lot of the communist idea of dense living is making its way into the west in the form of endless development: lots of office buildings and apartment buildings built within close proximity, as well as parks and seating areas with snippets of nature in the general vicinity; what's interesting to me is how so few are noticing where this sort of living actually originated. Though this part of the world continues to surprise with the former attempts at making certain aspects of life much more simple. By now you probably have guessed what you're looking it, and if you don't: you're looking at the decayed ruins of an abandoned and unfinished outdoor swimming pool, which is larger than a football field in length, with a gradually growing depth met with various low and high diving boards. In the background is Mount Ararat, towering over.

This abandoned swimming pool is located on the same grounds as one of the oldest churches in the world, and next to it is an active military base. The weird mixup of what's nearby doesn't manage to bring much attention to the pool. It sits idle, void of much presence outside of the rare few teenagers that linger around. Though most of the time it appears to be empty; on one side it has a set of stairs that lead upward to the back of the diving boards, yet they're closed and locked for some reason. I can't help but think of what a tragedy it is that such a beautiful creation is left to rot. The idea that it held to bring health and community together for people as they pursue leisure under the intense summer heat. Walking by the side of the pool, and even walking inside it, I couldn't stop thinking of what it may have looked like had it finished and been capable of operating. The beauty of it, all the little stories taking place here, with the backdrop of such incredible nature. I have never seen anything like this before, something completely impossible in the cold and expensive England. I can't help but think of how the ideology to pursue comfortable living spaces with the mixture of grand architecture (of course this side of the brutalist Soviet modernism came with the propaganda purposes) was something tragically lost in our present.

Overgrown is the side of the pool. A few rusted seating areas and showers are to be found still standing, some still have the head of the shower on them, others removed and fallen elsewhere. One or two of the stands had fallen into the side of the pool, of which at this point was already quite a few feet deep. I climbed in, scratching the base of my gimbal a little and forgetting I had my Macbook Pro in my backpack with me, as well as a camera strapped around my neck. My interest in exploring this space was too strong. I stood at the end of the diving board at one point, to which I could hear the sounds of life below in the pool of water that remained. I look down, at least ten feet deep at this point until it reaches the water. Croaks and other odd noises were to be heard with the constant communication between them. I could see them sitting idle in a pool of filth and plastic. The water looked disgusting. Though I found it fitting that an abandoned swimming pool found life in the form of little swimmers still.

I walked the entire length of the pool to get to this point. To see if I could photograph the frogs that had made claim over this space. These things varied in size. A strong green to them that I hadn't seen before. It was an odd place for frogs to have made home, the area around is dry, mostly void of trees. I wondered how they had managed to find their way here. Whether they attempted to go elsewhere at any point in time. I had question of how they fed themselves, with the sheer number of frogs that were present. They seemed cautious of me standing at the slope that went down into the water. The slope was mostly damaged over time, and I felt a bit of risk walking down it with tiles that were no longer secure, turning to dust and definitely quite fragile. The frogs would see me and swim a bit into the water, gaining a bit more distance from me. Some remained near the edge, either not really noticing me or just not really caring. Larger observations were to be made with gaining a closer look at the water. Tadpoles. Thousands of them. Each swimming safe at the shallow end of the water. Endless movement in the water.

Some hadn't made it, where the water had increased and decreased over time, it led to many remaining dried up at the edge. I decided to add more risk of falling into what looked like radiated waste of instant death by kneeling down to get a closer look at them all. To try to photograph them with more detail. Along the entire line these tadpoles were to be found. It was no surprise that so many frogs had claimed this space after all. Yet this was the most nature I had seen here that wasn't belonging to farmers or having wings. Upon a closer look at this body of water was the collection of things in a dark red colour. I assume they were something very bad; either some sort of collections of parasitic creatures or larvae that'd still grow into something much more unpleasant in the coming days and weeks. I ensured I kept my distance and stability at the edge of this slope. Feeling the intense sun on me at that point. The dehydration starting to hit after having spent so much time roaming this area. I felt that sadness of what could've been, how we had managed to stray so far from creating beautiful and useful things for our communities. But I felt that happiness that something had found purpose for it somehow.

And this is the cycle, I guess. No matter what we build, whether it's grand and beautiful or small and ugly, somehow nature will reclaim it, we'll forget about it and it'll lose its importance. People won't even find interest in visiting it anymore, aside from curious individuals like myself with cameras. It makes you think: does any of this stuff really matter? How should we address the protection of our past? As well as our present, as a matter of fact. Should we look ahead with the idea of creating beauty and maintaining it for all the centuries we possibly can? I think everything has an expiration date, even this odd period we now live in in which we forget about what's important, and pursue quick and easy growth. Nature comes out on top in the end.