The photographer Phillip Buehler has devoted his career to exploring obsolete sites, what he calls “modern ruins.” Captured in states of evocative decay, his subjects have included an abandoned psychiatric asylum, a Cold War missile silo and an offline power plant.
In late 2019, Buehler's body of work on view in the exhibition “Mallrat to Snapchat: The End of the Third Place” — at Front Room Gallery, in New York — may have elicited more nostalgia than the others. It was a look at New Jersey’s defunct Wayne Hills Mall and, by extension, at the dying culture of middle-class suburban shopping centers across the country.
"I started photographing abandoned places the same year the mall opened, 1973, when I was a senior in high school," Buehler told The Study. "At the time, New York was falling apart, with empty piers and abandoned or burned-out buildings everywhere. Back then, nobody was photographing them, so I had no art references — most were cinematic. Two films released in 1968 made a big impression on me: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes."
Browse a collection of Phillip Buehler's photography on 1stDibs.
Barber's Chair
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse This photograph was taken at Greystone Park Hospital and shows a singular abandoned barber chair i...
Archival Pigment
Wheel Chair
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse. This photograph is taken at Greystone Park Hospital, in an area of the building where snow has drifted into the abandoned complex. Phillip Buehler has been photographing abandoned places around the world since he rowed to the (then abandoned) Ellis Island in 1974. Many, like Greystone Park Hospital, have since been demolished; some, like Ellis Island and the High Line, have been restored, and some, like the S.S. United States and the New York State Pavilion, are now in jeopardy. Photographs from the (now demolished) Greystone Park Hospital are featured in this exhibition and in the book “Wardy Forty” which he wrote in 2013 about the last days of Woody...
Archival Pigment
Shower
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x30" edition of 5 photograph available unframed Phillip Buehler has been photographing abandoned places around the world since he rowed to the (then abandoned) Ellis Island in 1974. Many, like Greystone Park Hospital, have since been demolished; some, like Ellis Island and the High Line, have been restored, and some, like the S.S. United States and the New York State Pavilion, are now in jeopardy. Photographs from the (now demolished) Greystone Park Hospital are featured in this exhibition and in the book “Wardy Forty” which he wrote in 2013 about the last days of Woody Guthrie
Archival Pigment
Operating Room
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse This photograph was taken at Greystone Park Hospital, and shows a distressed abandoned operating room...
Archival Pigment
4 Sinks
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse. This photograph is taken at Greystone Park Hospital, in an abandoned washroom, with a row of sinks lined up against a distres...
Archival Pigment
Typewriter
By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
24"x30" edition of 5 photograph available unframed Phillip Buehler has been photographing abandoned places around the world since he rowed to the (then abandoned) Ellis Island in 1974. Many, like Greystone Park Hospital, have since been demolished; some, like Ellis Island and the High Line, have been restored, and some, like the S.S. United States and the New York State Pavilion, are now in jeopardy. Photographs from the (now demolished) Greystone Park Hospital are featured in this exhibition and in the book “Wardy Forty” which he wrote in 2013 about the last days of Woody Guthrie...
Archival Pigment
Hairly
By Patty Carroll
Located in Sante Fe, NM
The subject is the conflation of woman and home. In the previous “Anonymous Women: Draped” photographic series, a lone woman is hidden in a vignette within the drapery, where she per...
Archival Pigment
Frieze 4
By Adrian Samson
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: In rich, cinematic reds and browns, vivid yellows, and muted neutral shades, Adrian Samson’s photographs seduce viewers into a radiant, chromatic universe. With a ...
Photographic Paper
Untitled 03, 5-10-15 series, 2010, Photograph, C-Type
By Paul Kowalow
Located in Yardley, PA
Paul Kowalow, Untitled 03, 5-10-15 series, c-print on supra endura, 2010 :: Photograph :: Color :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist ...
C Print
Andrew Moore - BarberMayito, Photography 2013, Printed After
By Andrew Moore
Located in Greenwich, CT
Archival Pigment Print Basement archives of the modernist library in Kent CT All available sizes & editions for each size of this photograph: 30" x 40” - Edition of 5 + 2 Artis...
Archival Pigment
Stage Stills (5)
By Jo Whaley
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Stage Stills “With the portfolio of images entitled Stage Stills, I have returned to my roots as a scenic artist, but from a different perspective. Upon seeing the backstage of the...
Archival Pigment
Weary, Contemporary Color Photograph of Abandoned Room, Edition of 6
By Rebecca Skinner
Located in Franklin, MA
Rebecca Skinner’s “Weary” is a contemporary color photograph of an abandoned room with a worn leather chair and a crumbling fireplace covered in green moss, symbolizing decay and the...
Metal
