Seph Lawless loves sadness. The photographer from Cleveland in the state of Ohio has specialized in motifs in the so-called “rust belt”, on sites of industrial decay in the north-east of the United States where the production facilities of the auto industry once stood.
In addition to the empty factory halls, he also documented the decline of heavy industry elsewhere. If people lose their jobs, shopping malls also have to close because customers stay away. Entire streets are empty because private houses are being foreclosed on. If no new buyer is found, whole blocks of houses are left to decay.
Seph Lawless – the name is a pseudonym – has been traveling to these “lost places” since 2005. There he finds the optimal conditions to work on his major project, which he has given the title “Autopsy of America”.
His extensive opus also includes a specialty that he has discovered for himself: abandoned amusement parks. For ten years he not only photographed those places in the North American provinces, but also in East Berlin, for example, where things were once loud and fun.
But years ago these fun institutions closed: carousels, Ferris wheels and roller coasters collapse. Plants, weeds and trees often proliferate – nature reclaims the property.
Seph Lawless published his best photos of this sad genre in the photo book entitled “Abandoned – Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks”, published by Skyhorse Publishing. On the following pages of the photo series we show a selection of the pictures.
Also click through this series of photos:
– Geisterbahnhöfe in Germany: Where no train comes anymore
– Derelict and long forgotten: Lost Places to creep you out
– Beautiful enough to make you shudder: These mansions are now only inhabited by ghosts