The Photos Collected by the Dead Malls Enthusiasts Will Make You Think

courtesy of Dan Wampler Photography.

I know I've been on a brief hiatus (working on a very large entry), but when I ran across this article on Neatorama about the Dead Malls Enthusiasts, I knew I wanted to share it. Essentially, the Enthusiasts are a group of people who like to collect photos of America's various "dead malls," or those shopping centers that are all or mostly abandoned, leaving nothing but shuttered doors and the faded impressions left by old store signs. The photos range from comical to eerie and remind me very distinctly of the kind of images you would see during the Dust Bowl, except in the form of structures instead of people.

What the photos also represent to me though is two kinds of tragedy - the loss of a large group's livelihood as well as the failure of both a business' and a community's work. In many cases, when a business fails, it can simply disappear, and while the loss is painful, another will take its place. A mall, however, is not simply a business - it's a giant piece of real estate. Unlike storefronts or office space which can be refilled, a mall will simply sit and become blighted in little time save the introduction of a grant redevelopment project. The community that gambled on it is also a loser in the failure as a result.

The photos are definitely worth a look - only if just out of curiosity. Take a moment and reflect on some of those issues that only abandoned buildings can really show and how we might address them before we get to that point.