Landscaping overgrows, walls develop mildew, ceilings cave in -- a building can be shut down, but that doesn't make it go away. Brian Ulrich's photographs of closed-down malls and big-box retail stores reveal the potential ghost towns lying inside successful shopping complexes all across America.

Dan Kildee:

Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow.

Brian Ulrich:

Not if, but when.

Over the past 7 years I have been engaged with a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live.

George Soros:

The short-term needs are the opposite of what is needed in the long term.

Steve Bellovin:

Architecture matters a lot, and in subtle ways.

Jane Jacobs:

When a place gets boring, even the rich people leave.

Christopher Leinberger:

It's not a matter of waiting for two or three years to absorb the overproduction. It's a matter of drastically reducing real estate prices to well below replacement cost. And when you sell something for below replacement cost -- that might sound like, well, "Somebody takes a hit but life goes on as usual." No, life doesn't go on. For the owners of that retail or housing space, every dollar that they invest will be money they don't get back. That is another definition of a slum. There's no incentive to invest in a slum. So here you are.

Ghosts of Shopping Past