Description
“Mallrat to Snapchat” by photographer Phillip Buehler is a meditation on the end of mall culture. Focusing on the ruins of Wayne Hills Mall (1973-2019), Buehler reflects on the importance of malls during his own high school years growing up in suburban New Jersey. He’s been photographing ruins for over 40 years, trying always, “to find some value, something honorable, something important that was there happening, that’s going to be erased. I almost use the photographs to seduce people into a story that’s more important than the image itself.”
State of the Arts visited Mallrat to Snapchat: End of the Third Place (Nov 29. 2019-Jan 12, 2020) at Front Room Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side.
Produced by Susan Wallner; Videography by Kirk Sohr.
Drone footage and still photograph of Phil Buehler in mall courtesy of Antiquity Echoes.
Also watch: Guthrie at Greystone, about another project by Phillip Buehler.
