About this item
Throughout the 1980s, as America's downtown districts declined in importance and the "big-box" stores began their slow march across the country, malls became increasing central to American popular culture, dominating the social life of a large swath of the population. In 1989 Michael Galinsky, a twenty-year-old photographer, drove across the country recording this change: the spaces, textures and pace that defined this era. Starting in the winter of 1989 with the Smith Haven Mall in Garden City Long Island, Galinsky photographed malls from North Carolina to South Dakota, Washington State and beyond. The photos he took capture life in these malls as it began to shift from the shiny excess of the 1980s towards an era of slackers and grunge culture. Malls Across America is filled with seemingly lost or harried families navigating their way through these temples of consumerism, along with playful teens, misfits and the aged.
About the Author
They moved on to documentaries and partnered with David Beilinson to create the production studio Rumur. Together, they have made a half dozen documentaries including "Horns and Halos" and "Battle for Brooklyn" - both of which were short-listed for the Academy Award in documentary. Michael was the recipient of a Guggenhiem Fellowship in film in 2012. He and Rumur are in post production on two longitudinal documentary projects, "The Story of Pain" which examines the stress/ illness axis, largely through the work of Dr. John E. Sarno, and "Conception" which deals with the ideas of nature vs. nurture.
