“I’m looking for subtle signifiers of an exuberant bygone optimism,” [Photographer Tag Christof] said. “Whether people realize it or not, the things I photograph are the direct result of a system that defines progress only in economic terms.” Christof...has spent the last five years crisscrossing the country in an effort to document architectural sites vanishing from the landscape. — The Outline
Whether you spent your teenage years moodily occupying the food court or have experienced malls primarily as ruin porn, the architectural significance of these former bustling commercial centers can't be overstated. A kind of high water mark of capitalism, the shuttered and demolished malls profiled in this piece for The Outline represent a country whose narrative was mainly shaped by a robust middle class and a belief in national infallibility, two things that are noticeably weakened in the present era. While nostalgia is usually always the end result of oversimplification, it's hard to argue with the fact that in the last few decades the commercial infrastructure of the United States has undergone a dramatic shift, both physically and symbolically.
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