These are just a selection from a series of astounding images; the result of a five-year collaboration between young Parisian photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

And believe it or not, they were taken in Detroit.

By the 1950s, Detroit had become the fourth largest city in the United States, but some fifty years later it had lost half of its population; ironically dispersed by the product of the industry that created its wealth - the automobile.

Here's Marchand and Meffre's statement:

"Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension. The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires.

This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time: being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.

Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state."

Click below to see the full collection, and explore a second set that deals entirely with abandoned theatres...