America's Forgotten Stories
By Véronique d'Entremont
21 Apr 2007
For five nights I have slept in the parking lots of five different Wal-Marts along the Hudson River Valley. I will wake tomorrow before the sun rises, drive up Rt. 17 to an abandoned Jewish resort hotel, and park at the hotel's country club that is still in operation. Walking toward the main hotel complex I feel that I am on the brink—I am moving from one world into another. The country club building stands apart from the others, but within 150 feet of a tennis court overgrown with trees that were once shrubbery. The well-manicured grass of the golf course abruptly becomes a field of overgrown stalks and wildflowers, as though some hand precisely chose that line as the place where The Profitable Country Club ended and The Abandoned Hotel began. It is the moment of crossing this line and passing into another world that I find most exciting.
I have been exploring and photographing abandoned buildings and institutions since the year 2000. Thousands of abandoned hospitals, hotels, and homes exist across the country; cast-off relics of bureaucratic decisions, a changing economy or individual misfortune. Inside these buildings, I often find the artifacts of former inhabitants. Discarded furniture and personal belongings make the buildings feel alive, and begin to tell a story about the people that once were there.
1 response
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Maura Wolfson-Foster gave props (15 Aug 2009):
Big "YEAH" from me - what a fantastic project~thank you!!!
