Artist Lecture: Brian Ulrich

I was very excited by Brian Ulrich's lecture this afternoon. His images of big box retail stores, abandoned shopping centers and malls, and portraits of consumers are pristine and insightful. Ulrich's subtle commentary on our American consumer culture is savvy and visually interesting. By using film and shooting with a medium format, 4x5, and 8x10 view camera, Ulrich is able to create large and immensely detailed prints that are absolutely gorgeous. As he explained in the lecture, the richness of the film lends a sense of importance to photographs of even the most mundane objects.
My personal favorites were from the Dark Stores project, in which Ulrich explored and documented once thriving businesses that are now desolate. As I was viewing these images, the term liminal (from my research post below) kept coming to my mind. It struck me that I felt an affinity for the places depicted in his imagery because they are stuck in a liminal space just like I am. Once bustling and now forgotten, places such as Circuit City, Value City, and many others can now be found on the threshold between past and future. Other people viewing the work may not have gotten the same feeling at all, but for me, Ulrich's images spoke about the liminal state of being between want and reality. Below are a few of my favorite images from both Retail and Dark Stores.