Tony Worobiec

Being a collection of photographs, accompanied by essays, which aims to illustrate the desolation of the northern and central plains by focusing (sorry...) on abandoned houses (particularly their interiors), junked cars, and, less often, public buildings. This is a great idea and is carried out well by talented photographers. Exploring abandoned houses was an occasional pastime of mine as a lad, when I was in the company of some of my more daring comrades, and the old houses do really exude a sense of their erstwhile occupants back in better days. I believe that this book would have been better with fewer vehicles; despite a few bullseyes when the car's metallic colors pick up landscape or sky colors which complement them, those photos get rather repetitive. That space could profitably be used for more photos of main streets and cratered business districts, which are archetypal images of rural decay for good reason. Another mediocre use of space is the essays; essays in photographic books are usually unwelcome guests, and these seem particularly plodding.… (mer)