Brian Ulrich: Is This Place Great or What

Plenty,BrianUlrich’slong-awaitedfirstmonograph,presentsthephotographer’sdecade-longexplorationoftheshiftingtectonicplatesthatmakeupAmericanconsumersociety.Ulrichfocuses,inpart,onphotographingthearchitecturallegaciesofaretail-driveneconomyinthemidstofcollapse—shoppingmallsonthebrinkofdemolition,emptybigboxstores,andotherretailstructuresintransition.IndepictingthedisintegrationoftheformereconomicandsocialanchorsoftheAmericanlandscape,Ulrichdoesmorethansketchthefrayingsurfacesofashopping-obsessedculture.Hehasalsocreatedaseriesofclear-eyedyetsympatheticportraits—ofteenagedshopperslostinreverieoveranewpairofshoes,thrift-storemavensdeterminedtofindthebestdealpossible,andfamiliesdesperatelyinsearchofthatperfectpurchase.Cinematicandutterlyengrossing,theseportraitsareinterspersedamongtheforlornlandscapesofemptyparkinglotsandforeclosedmalls.Tracingapalpabletrajectoryfromirrationalexuberancetodebt-ladenhangover,Ulrichhassuccessfullymanagedtogetundertheskinofthecurrenteconomiccrisis,providingasoberingdocument—bothpersonalaswellassociologicallyastute—oftheAmericanconsumerpsycheinthefirstdecadeofthetwenty-firstcentury.PlentywillaccompanyanexhibitionofthesametitleattheClevelandMuseumofArt.,