Seph Lawless is an American photographer who has documented

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban decay. ...

and abandoned spaces in the United States.

Early life

Lawless grew up in a suburb of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, Ohio. He has stated that his father was a longtime worker at

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

Photography

In 2012 and 2013, Lawless photographed abandoned industrial infrastructure and other aspects of industrial decline in the

Rust Belt The Rust Belt, formerly the Steel Belt or Factory Belt, is an area of the United States that underwent substantial Deindustrialization, industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is centered in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (Uni ...

and elsewhere in the United States for his

self-published Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...

2014 book, ''Autopsy of America: The Journal Entries of Seph Lawless''. A second book, ''Black Friday: The Collapse of the American Shopping Mall'', contains photos from 2013 and 2014 documenting abandoned and boarded-up shopping malls. He photographed abandoned malls in Michigan and Ohio, including the abandoned

Rolling Acres Mall Rolling Acres Mall was a shopping mall located in the Rolling Acres area of Akron, Ohio, United States. Built in 1975, it originally included approximately 21 stores, with Sears as the main anchor store. Later expansions added several more stor ...

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, built in 1975 and closed in 2008, and the

Randall Park Mall Randall Park Mall was a shopping mall located in the village of North Randall, Ohio, United States. It opened on August 11, 1976 on the site of what used to be the Randall Park Race Track. After over a decade of decline, it closed on March 12, ...

in North Randall, Ohio, which was said to be the world's largest shopping center at the time of its opening in the 1970s, and which closed in 2009. In March 2016, his photographs of Disney's River Country, an abandoned section of

Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company. ...

, were published in various media outlets, and he claimed to have been banned from entering Disney World after photographing and sharing his images to the press. In March 2016 Lawless also took photos in

Picher, Oklahoma Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the heart of the Tri-State district, Tri ...

, a toxic abandoned town which the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

had mandated to be evacuated in 2006. In 2017, he photographed houses in the Beachwood neighborhood of

High River High River is a town within the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately south of Calgary, at the junction of Alberta Highways 2 and 23. High River had a population of 14,324 in 2021. History The community takes ...

, Alberta, Canada that had been abandoned due to a floodplain relocation program after the

2013 Alberta floods In the days leading up to June 19, 2013, parts of southern and central Alberta, Canada experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding described by the provincial government as the worst in History of Alberta, Alberta's history. ...

. Lawless's ''Huffington Post'' article and photographs were criticized in local media by the High River mayor, who said, "When you do things like this and you enter homes, you stage it with teddy bears, you move lamp posts around and you do all of these things to try and sensationalize stuff, it hurts people."

Themes

As an

urban explorer Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex, and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...

photographer, Lawless has recorded abandoned shopping malls and other developments, with the stated intention of informing people of the depth and failures of capitalism, consumption, globalization, and national economic policies. In 2014 he stated that he wanted to show Americans "what was happening to their country from the comfort of their suburban homes and smartphones." A large proportion of the abandoned malls, buildings, and amusement parks he photographs are in the Rust Belt, which has been heavily affected by the various economic changes of recent decades.

Publications

*''Autopsy of America: The Journal Entries of Seph Lawless.'' Self-published, 2014. . *''Black Friday: The Collapse of the American Shopping Mall.'' Self-published, 2014. . *''13: An American Horror Story.'' Self-published, 2014. *''The Last Lap: North Wilkesboro Speedway Is Losing a Race Against Time.'' Self-published, 2015. *''The Trolley Tragedy of 1957.'' Self-published, 2015. *''The Variety Theater: The Night Motörhead Brought Down the House.'' Self-published, 2015. *''Hauntingly Beautiful (13th Series).'' Self-published, 2015. *''Pet Cemetery...In Loving Memory.'' USA: Self-published, 2015. *''Bizarro: The World's Most Hauntingly Beautiful Abandoned Theme Parks.'' Self-published, 2015. *''The Prelude: The Deadliest City in America.'' Self-published, 2016. *''Black Friday: Seasons in the Size of Days.'' Self-published, 2016. *''Autopsy of America: Death of a Nation.'' UK: Carpet Bombing Culture, 2017. . *''Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks.'' New York City:

Skyhorse Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont. History The current president and publisher is founder Tony Ly ...

, 2017. .

Exhibitions

*''The Autopsy of America,'' foyer, Amerika Haus, Munich, Germany, 2014The Autopsy of America: Photography by Seph Lawless
, Amerika Haus. Retrieved December 2, 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawless, Seph Living people Artists from Cleveland American photojournalists Urban exploration in the United States Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American photographers 21st-century American journalists Photographers from Ohio Journalists from Ohio