Abandoned America February Updates That headline pretty much sums it up but here's a subheader anyway! December and January were both filled with work promoting the new Abandoned America book, adding to the website, and setting up new workshops for the year ahead. You know what I always say here in the opening paragraph? Blah, blah, blah, superbusy, working on loads of things. Still applies. The important stuff is below: book info, workshop info, a new gallery on the website, media coverage, social media. Let's just move on down to that, shall we? - "Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences" So hey, my new book came out in December, sort of also in November since Amazon figured they'd just ship it early and they can do whatever because they're Amazon. The book release party at the Gershman Y in Philadelphia was great, and there were a couple of other book signing events and lectures that were a lot of fun too. The book itself has been selling faster than we can get it printed and is getting amazing reviews and coverage; it's consistently been the #1 seller in its category on Amazon and has a solid 4.9 rating out of 75 reviews. Since the first printing went so fast, a second one is on its way to stores and should be there within a week. Thanks to everyone who supported it, wrote reviews, and otherwise helped to make it so successful; if you haven't had a chance to check it out here's the link. One important note, I'm scheduling lectures and book events for the upcoming year. If you or an organization you're familiar with would like to sponsor one, drop me a note!
- New Gallery added: Randall Park Mall Currently being demolished, Randall Park Mall was the largest mall in America when it was built in 1976. It was later eclipsed in size by the Mall of America. In its later years it struggled to find tenants and shoppers as the reputation of the area around it declined; unpaid property taxes led to its ultimate closure in 2009. The gallery on my website is one of the largest and also one of my personal favorites; as of right now there are also two interactive 360 degree panoramas that give you an unparalleled experience of standing in the middle of the ruins prior to the demolition.
- Workshops: Workshop season is almost here - I've added quite a few new events to the Spring calendar and they're filling really quickly. If you'd like to check it out follow this link or scan through them below, you can also see the Facebook page for people to post photographs from them here:
- Vanishing Countryside (3/21/15): Visit an area with dozens of abandoned farms and homes hidden away in some truly breathtaking scenery.
- Old Game Farm (Catskill, NY 3/22/15): While you're in the area for the Vanishing Countryside workshop, why not make a weekend of it and visit what was once the largest privately owned zoo in the US?
- Victory Theater (Holyoke, MA 3/28/15): Matt Lambros of After the Final Curtain joins us in a truly spectacular theater that has been abandoned for nearly 40 years!
- Mount Moriah Night Photography Workshop (Philadelphia, 4/3/15): This overgrown cemetery is full of amazing secrets and great photo opportunities. The Haunt of Mount Moriah (Moriah's unofficial sheriff and historian) will join us as we scout the grounds after sunset.
- Pennhurst State School (Spring City, PA 4/4/15): One of the most popular workshops, Pennhurst had a frightening history of abuse and neglect. The decaying institutional architecture offers a lot of opportunities to photograph the remains.
- Variety Theater (Cleveland, OH 4/11/15): Another workshop with Matt Lambros, this is a rare opportunity to visit a hidden gem. There are loads of other spots to visit (not on the workshop) in the area too should you choose to make a weekend of it!
- Trolley Graveyard (4/18/15): Another favorite, this spot was really popular last year because... it's just beautiful. There's so much to photograph and it's just a really fun area to visit as well.
- Abandoned America In the News: There has been a lot of coverage of my work in the news lately, to the degree that figuring out how to organize it here is a little bewildering. The LA Times ran a feature on my book, CSPAN covered my book release party, the Randall Park Mall work was featured in Daily Mail, Yahoo, and ABC, Business Insider ran a piece on my Hershey Chocolate Factory set, BBC ran a general article, the Discovery Channel Magazine ran two pieces, Lebanon Daily News had one, Buzzfeed featured my photos of abandoned hotels (as did the New York Daily News, Daily Mail, and Yahoo), Newsworks had another piece, and let's be honest with each other: there are some more ones that I could throw in but I don't feel like adding more hyperlinks and you aren't going to click on them all anyway. Let's just call it a day for the list of recent media coverage.
- The Abandoned America Facebook page: Nearly 160K followers! Two book giveaways and two print giveaways in the last month or so! I'm getting carried away with exclamation points!
- Abandoned America on Twitter: It had to happen, I guess. I don't know why I'm there or what I'm supposed to be doing with it, but you can watch me bumble my way through a new form of social media like a gangly fawn learning to walk on the uneven forest terrain. Plus, I actually respond to tweets. See? "Tweets"! I used a Twitter word. That's progress, I think. #progress
So hey, you read the whole way through my email blast (thank you!) and here we are together at the end. Wasn't that fun? Now that most of the people on the list have stopped reading, I feel like we can speak more frankly, you and I. It's been a weird month or two. Having a book out is weird, working on and promoting a website about abandoned things is weird, seeing articles with your photos is weird. Aside from the occasional crazy threatening letters from the less stable denizens of the internet, it can be a lot of fun though, and it truly wouldn't be possible without people like you who enjoy these places too. I don't really understand how I got here or where it's going but what I do know is that a lot of people connect with these places - people who shopped at or had their first job at Randall Park Mall, for example, who worked at factories I photographed, whose family members went to a church I was at when it was still open. The saddest thing about a ruin is the perception that nobody cares about it, that its history is forgotten - but when you appreciate a place or share an experience you or someone else had with it, even though the physical location may be lost, I truly believe that that act brings it back to life in a way and gives it purpose and importance once again. Thanks for that, and thanks for giving my own work some small bit of significance through your consideration of it also. I hope you'll keep revisiting it, there's a lot more on the way in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Matthew Christopher |
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