Isla de las Munecas, or the Island of the Dolls
Photographs of abandoned toy factories are haunting. Taken by various
photographers around the world, we see what’s happened after production
has stopped and employees stop showing up to work. Some places are left
in mid-production, while others have been ransacked by graffiti. In
other places, they were defeated by nature.
Illustrating a range of factory conditions, the most
unnerving photos are ones that depict these places as ghost towns. They
feature cracked doll heads, broken doll arms, and soiled teddy bears.
There is an air of mystery about them, and beg the question of, “what
happened?” Why did they suddenly pick and leave?
What makes these photographs unnerving is the juxtaposition
of toys and abandonment. We think of things like dolls and bears as
being innocent. They signify childhood, a time in our lives that
shouldn’t be so dark. Instead, we see toys having to face harsh
realities of time, wind, snow, and more. Nothing depicts this better
than the Isla de las Munecas, or the Island of the Dolls (above). While
actually a floating garden, this space of land is occupied by several
hundred dolls that have severed heads, limbless bodies and with empty
eye-sockets. It was originally conceived as a memorial for a girl that
was drowned in a canal, but has since fallen in disrepair.
This toy store and factory turned into a laser tag arena after it closed.
