The photography of Eric Holubow reminds us that not everything about urban decline is ugly.
Holubow, who lives in Chicago, has taken some truly remarkable pictures of abandoned buildings, from factories and hospitals to schools and churches. Many have gone unoccupied for years, sometimes decades.
Among the buildings are some stunning pictures of Milwaukee’s Schlitz brew house, which was torn down in 2013.
Many of the urban exploration photographer's most compelling pictures are collected in a new book, called Abandoned: America’s Vanishing Landscape.
He is able to capture the awe and mystery of former industrial buildings whose heyday has long passed. "That’s why I enjoy it so much – because you don’t know what you’re going to get," Holubow says. "Like, the genre of photography is often referred to as urban exploration, and there’s a side of kind of discovery, which is the thrilling part – you don’t know what’s going to be inside."
A couple additional photographs by Eric Holubow:
