Essay on the Rise of Brian Ulrich: Capturing Dark Stores, Ghostboxes, and Dead Malls

The photos of Dark Stores, Ghostboxes, and Dead Malls were the work of Brian Ulrich. He is an American and is greatly known has great experience in photography. He has majorly focused on social issues affected people, culture, patriotism, and consumer behavior towards shaping the economy. His rise in photography started in 2001 when the United States had the campaign to request the citizens to embrace the consumption of American products with the aim of enhancing the local economy. It was during this year that Ulrich began the Copia project which aimed at taking photographs of the shoppers in the malls, retail stores, and the organization in the businesses (Ulrich, 2011). The intention was to keep a record of the loyalty of the American consumers towards their products and their businesses. The work of Ulrich had been appreciated by various museums and displayed in their walls including Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago among others. Ulrich's photography has been highly appreciated since they involve a series of photos that demonstrate the change that has occurred and hence easy to understand.

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Brian Ulrich started his photography journey in 2001 with the aim of understanding the patriotism the American people had when carrying out their shopping. He would travel to different malls and big-box stores in the country with the aim of capturing photographs related to the consumers' behavior. The Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls is a section of the photographs that were taken after the great recession of 2008 (Ulrich, 2011). The photographs are contained in the Copia project which had the primary purpose to understand the patriotism of American consumers. The project was part of the book that Brian Ulrich has written by the title Is This Place Great or What. Copia project was subdivided into three parts; Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores. The Retail photographs were taken between 2001 and 2006 and they were taken in the malls and big boxes in different parts of the country. They had a large number of customers visiting the malls. The consumers spending at this time was very high and this could be demonstrated by the photographs with high populations purchasing different products in the malls. The Thrift series of photographs were taken between 2005 and 2008. The photographs in this series demonstrate a reduced population in the malls and stores which shows that things were not running normally. The purchasing power of the consumers was on the decline during this period and it at its end that the economic recession was experienced. Lastly, the Copia project had the Dark Stores series which contained photos that show the situation after the recession. These photographs were taken between 2008 and 2011 (Ulrich, 2011). They show how the malls and stores were deserted after the economic recession.

Brian Ulrich, the photographer, uses the Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes, and Dead Malls as a demonstration of the economic implications of self-destruction and illusion advertisement. The photographer demonstrates that during the Great Recession in 2008 many stores and malls were greatly affected by the money circulation issues that were experienced during the period. Most of them were left without anyone to take care of them. Also, the photos demonstrate that during that time people did not visit the malls and the stores (Ulrich, 2011). Most of them are vacant while only two of the photos show one person each who may have gone to see the situation at the malls since they seem not to operate. Additionally, the images show that the economy is interdependent of all the sources of money. Thus, when one area is majorly affected, the circulation of money is also affected. Consequently, this leads to the inability to sustain various components of the economy (Ulrich, 2011). Furthermore, the photos show that the malls and retail stores cannot operate if the consumers do not have any money to purchase various products. The issue would make it hard to pay rent and maintain the operations in the malls and retail stores.

The vision of the Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes, and Dead Malls photographs was to show the Americans the need to avoid over-consumptions and self-destruction since the practices can lead to the decline of the whole economy (Ulrich, 2011). Also, it shows the need for consumers to avoid investing in one area because it is expected to have a lot of profits since once it is affected the whole economy will be destroyed. The major cause of the recession in 2008 was the depreciation of mortgages and real estate properties which the majority of the people who controlled the US economy had invested in (Connaughton & Madsen, 2012). Thus, the decreased value of these areas greatly affected money circulation all over the country and hence affecting every business. It also led to the loss of jobs since most of the industries closed down (Luo, 2013). Therefore, there the malls and stores lacked finances to sustain their operations. The photographs were well chosen since the photographer focused on showing premises that were well known to the Americans since they had a large number of people. Thus, the members of the public can easily note the difference.

Conclusion

The central question that has been developed based on Ulrich's photography of Dark Stores, Ghostboxes, and Dead Malls is, "How does economic recession lead to the change in consumer behavior?" The question is the most appropriate based on the photos that were presented by Brian Ulrich. The photos are based on the changes that were seen in shopping malls, stores, and retail shops after the economic recession. The Great Recession was experienced in 2008 during a time when the economy of almost every part of the world went down with major effects being experienced in the United States and Europe (Ulrich, 2011). It is important to have a question concerning the change in consumer behavior because of economic downtime because it relates to how people adjust to a lack of money in the economy (Parker et al., 2013). A poor economy reduces the consumers' purchasing power and thus the little available money is used to purchase food but not for any other luxury. For instance, the image on an empty Rolling Acres Mall in 2008 shows that the consumers did not have any money to spend on the malls. Additionally, most of the consumers had lost their jobs and their businesses had closed down due to lack of money circulation (Luo, 2013). Consequently, this led to a lack of money to pay rent, maintain and continue running as it is evident in the state of Belz Factory Outlet Mall in 2009.

References

Connaughton, J. E., & Madsen, R. A. (2012). US state and regional economic impact of the 2008/2009 recession. Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, 42(1100-2016-90101).

Luo, J. (2013). Which industries to bail out first in economic recession? Ranking US industrial sectors by the power-of-pull. Economic Systems Research, 25(2), 157-169.

Parker, J. A., Souleles, N. S., Johnson, D. S., & McClelland, R. (2013). Consumer spending and the economic stimulus payments of 2008. American Economic Review, 103(6), 2530-53.

Ulrich, B. (2011). Is This Place Great or What. Places Journal.