I was hesitant to open up and actually read through Abandoned, a photography book by Eric Holubow.
My husband said, “It’s not your type of book, but it is mine,” as he flipped through the pages, savoring each photo.
He knows I’m usually not very interested in architecture books, let alone one about abandoned buildings, but on a quiet afternoon I turned the pages of Abandoned and was mesmerized.
Eric Holubow, a self proclaimed photographic explorer, filled a coffee-table-sized book with photos of rubble, debris, destruction, and chaos and created a work of heartbreaking beauty. Buildings across the country that have been long abandoned, left derelict and ready for the wrecking ball are photographed clearly, honestly and quite poignantly.
There are photos of rotting textbooks in an empty classroom, peeling wallpaper at a children’s hospital, and a barber’s chair from a cell in a state penitentiary. There are shots of a once posh hotel lobby now dusty, broken and moldy, and pictures from a candy factory shut down after 76 years in business.
But what makes Abandoned more than a book of rather depressing photos are the blurbs written about each location. By describing the history of each of these spaces, the people that once lived and worked there, and the businesses that thrived there, one can feel the humanity and hope in each picture, and the unsightly actually looks striking. – Carole Rosner
