Escondido and San Marcos, CA | Canon T2i | Canon 18-55mm f/3.5
Last year, for the Thanksgiving holiday, my travels landed me in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then two hours northeast to the land of the Leech Lake Ojibwa. We hit the road on the eve of Thanksgiving, and I had the luxury of riding shotgun while my good friend, Elizabeth Day, was my tour guide.
I was taking in the scenery when I noticed all the empty parking lots of the major box stores. I thought it would be an interesting series to capture—no cars, no people, no consumption.
This year, I made a plan to get out and capture the moment. Other than possibly a natural disaster, when can you capture scenes of abandonment? Not even on Christmas Eve will you experience such a thing, as there are always last-minute shoppers.
It was an interesting experience to drive freely through the streets and parking lots.
For this project, I excluded the smaller stores and restaurants and focused on the larger chains, where most of the consumption would occur. More so, this year, there was only a small window to capture the images, as we are now being exposed to pre-Black Friday advertisements, and the major stores are closing only for a few hours.
My observations led me to an uneasy feeling and at least one good chuckle. Of course, Walmart never closed, and there were campers at the electronics stores. At around 3:00 p.m., Target had a handful of campers, Toys-R-Us had one guy with his cell phone and an extra chair, while Best Buy and Fry’s had a dozen or so people in tents and lawn chairs by the front door.
The sun was about to set, and I knew I would have to call it a day. I went to the last shopping mall, where I got a good laugh. Of all the stores, you would expect to have a congregate of eager shoppers, but Michael’s had the most people waiting outside. Michael’s?!?! There must be some serious crafters out there.
