Michael Galinsky’s 2011 photo-book “Malls Across America” went out of print quickly and now sells for upwards of $1000/copy; Galinsky is now kickstarting a sequel, The Decline of Mall Civilization, featuring 112 pages of images of American malls from 1989.
The book is a $44 hardcover, with delivery planned before Christmas 2019. It’s $70 for two, and there are signed art prints of some of the interior art available at higher pledge levels. The project already has a design, a printer and a shipper, which bodes well for getting what you paid for.
Our first stop was Columbus Ohio. We stayed with my aunt but we didn’t find a mall. We then hightailed it to Detroit where we hit the jackpot with the Woodfield Mall. It’s a beauty and there are probably a dozen in the book from that one. Next stop was Chicago- then South Dakota, and on and on. All in all, we hit about 15 malls. We got some great images but it wasn’t really their time. By 1989, the “Pictures Generation” – with its focus on more constructed and deconstructed images – had pushed street photography out of the galleries. They were doubling down on big ideas and conceptual work. I went on to take a couple other photo classes, but turned my attention to making music and making films. I shot a lot of images, but my main outlets for them were fanzines and album covers. I moved on to making films. In 2010, I re-discovered these slides and the rest is history.
The Decline of Mall Civilization [Michael Galinsky/Kickstarter]
