Susan Richman: Transient

I've always been drawn to breaking the rules. In the creation of this work, I've been chased, I’ve hidden to avoid discovery and I’ve been to court (though the charges were dropped). The adrenaline and excitement of trespassing compels me to return again and again to these abandoned buildings. I am drawn to the beauty of their history and decay.

My Series Transient is homage to faded memory. The allure of abandoned buildings and the beauty of their decay have inspired me to create images evocative of ephemeral memory. In most cases, the buildings were abruptly shuttered, leaving behind artifacts of the people that worked or inhabited them. The knowledge that these once vibrant spaces filled with workers, residents and lives now filled with decrepit machinery, rust, weathered paint and rot is unsettling. The impermanence of the decomposing structures tossed aside is a stark contrast to what was originally a stable secure landscape and way of life. When closed, jobs were lost, people relocated and the transient nature of our existence was exposed as lives and communities became forever changed.

The mysterious images are created in camera using film, mirrors and Mylar. Capturing the image is like capturing a mirage that constantly changes moving in and out of existence and sometimes is lost forever. The photograph’s otherworldliness can be imagined as hazy memories of the past. Perhaps once the buildings are torn down or repurposed, they will exist as warning to our collective transient existence.