Working
Living
Learning
Healing
Playing
Praying
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St. Boniface Chicago
Bethlehem Steel
Uptown Theater Chicago
Eastern State Penitentiary
Lynnewood Hall
Redford High School
Documentary Photography · Chicago

America's
Vanishing
Landscape Eric Holubow

A decade of access. Over a hundred abandoned sites. The steel mills, hospitals, theaters, churches, and schools that defined American civic life — documented before they disappear forever.

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St. Boniface Church
Chicago, Illinois
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01
The Work
"Not simply documentary photography — an attempt to understand what people did, and how life was animated in these spaces. Even though the work shows the absence of people, it instinctively brings them to the surface."
Eric Holubow has been called one of the defining voices of 21st century urban decay photography. His panoramic composites — stitched from dozens of high-resolution exposures — produce images of documentary precision and cinematic scale. Featured on CBS Nightly News, in Architectural Digest, Whitewall, Chicago Magazine, and CNN.
The Portfolio

Six Chapters

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Working
01 / 06
Working
Steel mills, power plants, breweries — the ruins of the industries that fueled America.
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Living
02 / 06
Living
Banks, mansions, train stations — the liminal spaces that shaped daily life.
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Learning
03 / 06
Learning
Classrooms, auditoriums, gyms — the schools we closed and the children we moved on from.
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Healing
04 / 06
Healing
Hospitals, prisons, psychiatric wards — institutions of rehabilitation left behind.
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Playing
05 / 06
Playing
Theaters and dream palaces where communities once gathered in shared joy.
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Praying
06 / 06
Praying
Churches, synagogues, cathedrals — ornate shrines left behind by shifting communities.
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Selected Works

From the Archive

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St. Boniface
St. Boniface ChurchChicago, Illinois
Joliet
Joliet Correctional CenterJoliet, Illinois
Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem SteelBethlehem, Pennsylvania
Michigan Theater
Michigan TheaterDetroit, Michigan
Michigan Central
Michigan Central StationDetroit, Michigan
Horace Mann
Horace Mann High SchoolGary, Indiana
St. Curvy
St. Curvy — PanoramaDetroit, Michigan
Richmond Power Plant
Richmond Power PlantPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Abandoned: America's Vanishing Landscape
Schiffer Publishing · Second Edition · 2024

Abandoned:
America's
Vanishing
Landscape

Eric Holubow

Two hundred photographs. Over a hundred sites. Thirty states. The most comprehensive photographic survey of the American ruin currently in existence — now in its second, expanded edition.

$60
Signed · Free US shipping
Eric Holubow at work
About the Photographer

Eric
Holubow

Chicago · New Bauhaus · IIT

"I'm trying to capture the character of a scene — to figure out something to say about the building or its inhabitants. There should be some takeaway beyond just: this used to be a factory."
Whitewall Magazine  ·  Artist Interview
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Limited Edition Fine Art Prints

Own a
piece of
the work.

Archival pigment on premium matte paper. Signed and numbered by the artist. Available in editions of 5 to 25, in multiple sizes. Each print is a direct extension of Eric's vision, made to last generations.