Rob Dobi - New England Ruins: Photographs of the Abandoned Northeast

Illustrator/photographer Rob Dobi has been photographing abandoned places in the Northeast since 1999 when he was a student at RISD. The wonderment and discovery of the experience never gets old for Dobi. There really isnt one specific type of building or space that inspires him more than another, mainly because the rush of stepping into a place where you dont know what to expect never gets old. His photographs include those of iconic places, asylums school house, churches, factories, and abandoned homes in the middle of nowhere. When he finds a new location that is particular inspiring he tends to go back every weekend until he feel safe in often unsafe structures and after he is confident he has captured the essence of a subject. He tries to document as much of a place as he can, with a good amount of wide shots that define the space as well as seeking out things one might not normally encounter. Sometimes the most interesting finds are the things others might look over, like a doodle on a sheet of paper, or some hidden patient scrawl on a brick. The collection of photographsaccompanied by introductory essays to each sectionevokes feeling of loss and nostalgia, but also rouses the imagination about those New England days now long in the past.

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

English Station in New Haven, Connecticut, was a thermal power plant located on Ball Island in the Mill River. Originally constructed from 19241929, the site operated as a coal- and oil-fired power plant until it ceased generating electricity in 1991. Once decommissioned, the property was sold by United Illuminating in 2000, and the plant has repeatedly changed hands since. A series of neglectful owners have let the property fall further into disrepair. The site is currently under investigation for PCBs and other contaminates, and plans are in motion to decontaminate the buildings, allowing for repurposing of the land sometime in the future.

CHICOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS

Originally used as a lumber yard in the late 1800s, the Uniroyal Tire Plant was used for nearly a century manufacturing bicycle, automobile, and truck tires until it was shut down in 1980, leaving three thousand employees without work. The collection of over twenty deteriorating buildings on forty-four acres of land has sat vacant since, with the town spending the past decade demolishing several buildings in an attempt to develop the property for mixed-use development.