The magazine of the photo-essay
Feb 2017 back issue
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
by Julia Solis
Stages of Decay is a collection of photos of abandoned and deteriorating
performance spaces, with a range that includes the stunning historical
theaters as much as the modest auditorium in a shuttered elementary
school.
The project depicts nearly 200 stages in the US and Europe,
photographed over more than a decade. It focuses on the actual stages
as they become disfigured by neglect, as the decay moves from the first
patches of mold to crumbling plaster, rotting curtains and collapsing
roofs.
The camera's perspective is that of a last audience member, viewing the
unfolding spectacle of decrepitude. Stages of Decay is a glimpse at what
happens after the final curtain has dropped.
Hospital Auditorium at Beelitz Heilstätten, Germany.
An abandoned elementary school in New Orleans.
Former community centre in Detroit.
The Eastown Theatre in Detroit before demolition in 2015.
Henryton State Hospital in Maryland.
Inside a former hospital in rural Massachussets.
The Michigan Theater in Detroit was converted into a garage.
Teatro Piccolo in Naples before its renovation.
Palace Theatre in Gary, Indiana.
Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.
An abandoned school in Pittsburgh.
The Ramova Theatre in Chicago.
A deteriorating sanatorium in Germany.
The Sattler Theatre in Buffalo.
A former social club in Detroit.
State hospital auditorium in Connecticut.
The Vanity Ballroom in Detroit.
