For Arthur Drooker, American Ruins sounds like a big contradiction. America has always represented what’s new in the future; while ruins are the remains of a forgotten and obsolete past.

In remote areas, barely noted on maps, far from the interstate highways, the malls and the urban sprawl, there exist places with crumbling walls and weathered façades that stand out in defiance of time and progress. This is a book of stunning infrared photographs of architectural ruins.

For Arthur Drooker, ruins are the essential windows to understanding the past. In the USA ruins become the touchstone places for Americans, something akin to Stonehenge in England or the Great Wall of China. Arthur Drooker criss-crossed America with his infrared camera carefully gauging the light and framing the landscape. He found beauty in the abandoned and forgotten backwaters of the States.

Some of the places he visited are iconic sites, such as Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and Alcatraz Island, California. But most are forgotten sentinels from a distant era, bathed in the mystery of ancient footsteps. Nature has reclaimed many of the weathered buildings; now moss and weeds and tall grasses sweep over the old stones with grace.

American Ruins is divided into study four areas: The East, The South, The South West and California and Hawaii. Arthur Drooker visited twenty one locations within these four areas and there are two particular modern locations, Bethlehem Steel Works and Alcatraz Island.

Click on any of the thumbnails to see full-size images

Bethlehem Steel Mill

Of all the industrial ruins in the USA, it is the Bethlehem Steel Mill that has become the symbol of national decline and the challenges of the globalised world. In its first decades, the mill was celebrated as a symbol of power. The steel for such American icons such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge was made here.

In the 1950’s its Chief Executive was the best paid in the nation. But by 2001, the company was bankrupt and in large part, due to foreign competition, the Mill was closed. Just like Detroit, it became symbol of industrial shrinkage, unemployment, vacancy and redundancy.

The Bethlehem Steel Mill was the first company in the nation to produce the ‘I’ beam and wide flange structural shapes, revolutionising the construction industry. During both World Wars the mill was a major supplier of armour plate and ordinance to the US armed forces. Many of the navy’s fighting ships also used armour plate and large-calibre guns supplied by Bethlehem. The United Kingdom and Western Europe had much to be grateful to American steel for in 1945.

Its assets are now owned by an Indian Steel Conglomerate and the site will be re-used as a casino. According to M. T. Anderson, “America has changed from a country which glorified production to a country which glorifies consumption.”

US Penitentiary at Alcatraz.

The ‘Rock’ has served as a fort, a military prison, and a federal penitentiary that housed infamous criminals such as Al “ Scar face” Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Doc Barker. Increasing maintenance and operating costs forced the closure of the prison in 1963.

When Alcatraz became a federal penitentiary in 1934, the first four warders and their families occupied the Warden’s House. The piles of rubble in the Parade Ground are the remains of the correctional officers’ apartments. Crews from the General Services Administration bulldozed these structures in the wake of a nineteen month occupation by Indians of All Tribes, a political organisation seeking restoration of native lands that began in 1969. In 1972 Alcatraz was designated part of The Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Infrared Insights into American Sites of the past.

American Ruins is a very attractive and appealing visual meditation on American connections with its past. Arthur Drookers infrared photographs have a spiritual quality and this book should be viewed by architects, photographers and cultural historians who have a trans-Atlantic interest in American studies today.

Photo credits: all photos by Arthur Drooker