And lastly, we will hold questions til the end of matthews presentation. And when you ask a question, wait for them to bring a mic to you, because if you just shoutth it out, they cant really hear you. Ill tell you just a bit about the photo review since this is the commercial before the main event. The photo review is a nonprofit journal of photography founded in 1976 which means this is our 40th anniversary. We publish a newsletter which lists photography exhibitions throughout the midatlanticst region, philadelphia, new york, washington, delaware, maryland, virginia and news about photography from around the world. And we also have a journal that has exhibition reviews, book reviews, essays and publishes the winners of our annual competition. Theres an interest in abandoned sites since he was a child. We wont go into the psychology about it. But he started documenting them in a while researching the decline of the State Hospital system. Media and his website a band in america has gained International Attention in the images of abandoned spaces on the intern internet. To launch matthews latest book of abandoned america, second volume, and as you look through these images both in print and in the book, you will see a very accomplished in terms of creating the photographs in a rectangle matthews vision gets to the heart of the matter in terms of composition and color and of course in terms of the content, and that is what is important about the work. There are many people that have and continue to photograph the abandoned spaces and you might have a Beautiful Image of the abstract pattern of paint on the wall or in abandoned gloves off to a factory floor. But what matthew does is remind us of the lives that once inhabited these species. The only thing that is constant in our lives this change. None of these spaces from industries, homes, hospitals was necessarily meant to last forever. Nor does anything particularly last forever. But its how we treat these places and what we expect out of them and how we plan for the institutions that succeed them. It is especially appropriate in this Political Campaign season. They grow up in upstate pennsylvania in the coal mining country. The coal industry has been disappearing for years despite what politicians will say, it isnt coming back. Theres nothing you can do to save it. It is a victim of improving technologies of market forces. They drive down the price of cold. And certainly for the many that are losing their jobs, we have to figure out how to retrain them and get them to the industries that need them. But for all of the miners that had black lung and were injured, had friends, family members killed in the minds, its not that bad of a thing. On one level. Same with factory jobs. We need to think about what the future holds and how we can make that happen. Personally, i think that the photographs really show us the elegance of what has been but leaves us with the question of what we call a. Its my pleasure to introduce matthew christopher. [applause] hello, everybody thank you for coming out tonight. Im grateful to have all of you here. It means a lot to me he would come out and share the evening with me. Im excited to talk about my new book. Before i do, i just have several people to think. I would like to thank my family and wonderful fiance both of whom have helped tremendously with this event either the sponsors of this event. They are entertaining grace. If you are looking at the lovely set up out there and the catering and decorations that is entertaining grace so you can look at that online and if you have any events that you would like to have online they are the ones to do it. Also, the Community Partners at gershman. I would like to thank the photo review for coming out and being a part of the evening that is an honor to me. They helped get the word out about the event and all of you that have come out and supported the book, the work, people that reviewed the book and that are here to share the evening with me. Also, eric and danielle who both helped me quite a bit with editing the book and cspan for being with us as we were bringing things in and out. Things you, richard. So anyway, this is a pretty great night not just in terms of the book being out and finally done, which i have to tell you that is pretty great for me not as some sort of a big life accomplishment that it was a lot of work. Also, this is the ten Year Anniversary of my website. So, my website abandoned america, which is where we get the title of the book and dismantling the dreaming at thee age of consequence which was my first book. That is basically a catalog of the different sites that ive been to whereas many of them as i processed and added online so it is kind of a neverending thing that im building. Usually in the beginning i like to give people an idea of the places ive been to. This is the collection of images we will experience together. This is a plant that ive been to. All of the forms used to make the plates and dishes are quite heavy and that is why they are sinking through the floor. Looking at bethlehem steel. If you go out there now you can see all the restoration work they did go over on the trestle, you can look down into the room. But when i went there in 2008, 2009, the whole thing was a band and. This is alcoa aluminum, one of the first. This is the plant in detroit. If you ever see body by fisher stamped on your car, thats where they did. This is late 2008. Apparently a good chunk of the facade fell off. Here is the query in pennsylvania. The Hershey Chocolate factory. That is one that is kind of a poignant one for me because i spent a good portion of my youth growing up there and my father worked there. He didnt work in the factory but in the it section. They build a new facility so its not like they went bankrupt or something but this is an iconic one when he founded it. One of the recent ones i photographed from the major urban newspaper theyve moved their offices out in the subur suburbs. The whole facility has these printing machines being dismantled as we speak. Bell labs is used to think for a myriad of technologies like microwaves, satellite, microwave technology, they develop what they call the big name. At the time, these were all the looms they had that were threaded with the least that they were making when it closed. One of them remains, and it isnt in good condition. Condition. The clothing factory people frequently ask me why there are so many things left over in a case like this. You have thousands of coats and the reason the place closed is because guys dont wear suit jackets that much to work anymore so they were not giving the same business and they were closed because of that, then everything inside is more or less seized to potentially pay off debtors. Coats are chump change to the banks. They dont matter to them. The westport generating station is where they consolidated all the gas and electric into one building. At the time it was the largest reinforced concrete building in the world made of reinforced concrete so if there was a fire or anything blew up, the whole place would burn down. Power plants and water stations, Public Utilities are the great historic structure that you will ever see. Its astonishing because they are places the public doesnt really get to see and of course they had areas like this you just have kind of a steam pump nightmare is probably what that is. So, then to a number of resorts. If you were to go over to the other side of the hallway, you would see the room on the other side of the hall is in good condition. You could put sheets on the bed and you might not be able to tell it from another hotel because this site has water and the other side does not. Another resort that ive been to, i have to confess that ive read the names i havent actually heard it spoken. The guy that shot some of the Pennsylvania State troopers and then they hathen beheaded big mr him, this resort is where they found him. I dont assume that he slept on that bed because it doesnt look all that safe. That hotel was burned by an arsonist in double font. Its a gorgeous building. And one of the things i point out in my ever kind of previous talk, i have a previous presentation with a whole spiel on why he abandoned buildings will kill you and therefore you shouldnt go in them. This is all new stuff. So right here i will point out that as a whole when the stairs. The whole stairway is carboniz carbonized. So there is a good chance that at any point going up the stairway you would just go right through and probably punched through the one below and be in a whole world of hurt. So smart people dont go up the stairwells, i do. [laughter] this is one of the many churches ive been to this in quit that e good condition. The thing about churches that i think they are kind of works of art. Whether or not you share the faith or not of the church doesnt matter as much to me. Philadelphia in particular they are in endangered species, but much more so than the other cities as well. This is in the pittsburgh area and the neighbors that are surrounded are very worried about it even though they dont want to boost the building they are worried about the bricks falling off of it or a predator kidnapping somebody and bringing them in their. This building also in the pittsburgh area is the Holy Trinity Church and of the whole middle section just recently collapsed. They actually had to evacuate portions of the neighborhood around it because they were worried about the whole front of the building collapsing onto them which would have been pretty bad. This is the church in philadelphia one in my first. Saint boniface i was really lucky. Chris stock of the Philadelphia Salvage Company into this building as they were demolishing it. I have bee had been trying to gn there for five years and i couldnt. I couldnt get a hold of anybody. So i got in at the last minute. While they were right in the middle, they ripped off the apps and this is what was left. Heres another church that i had been to. The interesting thing about that, there was a small fire and you can see the remains of the lower lefthand corner. It didnt do a lot of structural damage but they did a lot of soot damage. Despite being dark because the windows, the lack of light, also was sort of pitch blacks redheaded nightmare feeling to it, very surreal. I had been to a good many homes. So many abandoned homes that if i had a dollar for each of them i could probably stop writing books and be at home playing xbox right now. The homes that i had been to they are parts of whole neighborhoods like this one. This is a minors village. Yes the horse is real by the way. I didnt digitally insert it. Anyway, they want to bring it back to some sort of williamsburg historic village. It is interestin was interestine were horses around in my face and i was like dont bite me. Some of the homes are full of peoples items in them. Homes of all places give the most intimate portrait of who people are. You find these affects that are there and sometimes they tell you Little Secrets about people that i think are interesting, and thats one of the things in my work thats important is trying to tell the stories people have. Some of the homes are in quite good condition. They can be an whole neighborhoods like this one here. Many of the homes recently burned which is unfortunately something you see happening again and again i and abandoned places. I dont know if this home in particular is gone but its pretty likely. Schools ive been to quite a few. I think they are sometimes the most difficult personally. I will talk a little bit more about that later. They really represent an investment in the community and the source of pride. One thing i sort of talk about is if you were to go back to the school now you might have sorts of memories. Thats the kid that sits next to me. You remember when th the teaches had this one thing. So we have these connections to buildings but when they are gone if the racing part of our own identity. This building luckily is a associate of a harrisburg firm so we got the chance to photograph that right before they started doing it which is pretty neat. If i had to sum up my feelings, that would be pretty close. Where there is no vision of people perishing again some of the buildings are an atrocious condition. One thing you will notice in the classroom the whole floor had fallen in that part of the reason is because this construction you can see if you look at this site right here where the boards fit into the wall water collects. So when do they go they can go bit by bit where they can just go down to the next war and the floofloor andthe floor beneath h case you are in a world of hurt. Thomas Edison High School in philadelphiphiladelphia was a pf pride of the city and people like Herbert Hoover and Albert Einstein animalia air hearts came and spoke. A Prestigious School recently torn down. As we build things with purpose, so too do we lose them. Its referred to as the pankhurst asylum. Its for people with Mental Illness institutions and people with medical plan to develop the disabilities. It was kind of a known as one of the ones that was pretty well known for its neglect and of the abuse that went on there. Its a chilling documentary you can watch called suffrage little children that was really good. Some of the other places like jersey was torn down by Chris Christie even though there were some good plans they could have hahad that would benefit the community more than just ripping it down. People say its a weak history maybe we should tear it down and start again which is wasteful. But other buildings like the State Hospital are in much worse condition and im always kind of shocked i dont see the photographers skeletons. This is the third or fourth floor of the building. We are up about wha above what n the previous picture. Its not like a onetoone correlation but the point is it is an extremely deadly building. In the center where the emigrants, ancommented still abandoned. When you have scarlet fever, rubella, they would send you over there or you would get treatment and then dove into the community and wind up in the theater right here. This is even pre refrigerated. This there is a fire in the place made by water dripping down the wall and from the ceiling. This is where they actually care and there are people that are contentious that will say they havent completely. Theres Drug Resistance traces. They cured all the various strains and they said we dont need that place anymore so that fell under the disrepair and that would be the last damn this place. In philadelphia like the last place that was in my book i have a lohada lot of stories i couldl you about. This building right here is a president caldwell new jersey. The thing about this one is there are a lot of people that will view these pictures and when i talk about the horrible conditions that are in here because i cant even tell you take a look at that. There are conditions recorded and they were so bad that if you were to think of was how would you like it would probably be better than this. It was so overcrowded they didnt have train stations or vindication for there was no space for anyone, there was disgusting water pouring from the feelings and i wa was so filthy. Pieces of the building were falling apart onto people. I could go on and on. The thing about this is a member of the people that were in here havent even been convicted they just couldnt pay the fine. I am not superstitious. I havent seen ghosts i will throw this out there right now. I have an active imagination, the places are spooky and i can picture places with monsters in them while im taking pictures but this place to reason that stands out as in this prison it was on an active campus for another prison this used to be where the criminally insane word and then they moved them to another facility. At a certain point i was like i dont mean to be disrespectful but you work with criminally insane people. That is a scary day timmy. Its full of actually criminally insane people. This building also one of the creepy ones was about the creepiest of the buildings. What was your read about this one is there were People Living in it still. With many buildings you have heightened senses and that is a branch against the window into this place you would be like whats that over there. And then you would see somebody else watching constantly all throughout the time. Buwhat i found interesting was that one they were all overbought walls and i had one that was a whole huge wall but there were a number of large prominent curse words so i figure because cspan is with us i will spare you all. What i can share with you is this. This was on an active campus and nobody else came into the building except for the people that were part of the prison system. I have to imagine i dont know what they wrote that makes it a little year enough knowing what it is. Whether the lights are on or not i didnt just ask everybody to please go to their cells. Those of my generation and younger i think we are seeing less and less of these places. They are much more rare especially Something Like this one and its condition, sure but back in the day this is a multibalcony theater and yes they are that steep when you are at the top it is kind of vertigo to see five floors down to the stage. Another question that i frequently get is had by find these places so i will tell you usually it is Research Networking and dumb luck and all the doors are open so i went in and it was very creepy nobody knew was there this room was a lot darker than even this pitcher gives you an idea pieces of the roof hanging off the light coming in at the end of the room when i was squinting at it like what is that over there . Have been nightmares it is even worse with a creepy abandoned building in that is what is across the room then you see it as you are piecing it together is your brain is processing from the 1800s that your flight goes through the of four so i photographed the place because when i came back to months later it was ripped in half they were tearing it down. All the services store their planes of very active facility just like that movie dont buy me love there are plenty of people with rifles asking what you are doing so i will now talk about the book i figured i would start off with this hotel it started in 1957 in Niagara Falls new york in one of the