Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: mall

I shot this more or less on a whim, and got exactly what I wanted. This is one of my favorite semi-abstract shots this year, shot out the window of Centrum Chodov, and capturing Sidliste Chodov in the process, along with the motorway.

I saw these in Sangertown Mall in New Hartford, New York, and just thought they were weird enough to photograph. I don't remember the store, but the store didn't specialize in toys or novelty items, and I should note also that hedgehogs are not generally considered native to New York, although porcupines (unrelated except for the quills) are common in the Adirondacks.

I randomly shot this on the food court (for practical purposes the top level) of Novy Smichov, an urban shopping centre that's actually closer to the Andel Metro than Nadrazi Praha-Smichov. I noticed the Czech flags were up on the other side of the court (which is open in the middle to give natural light to the other levels), which are actually a bit unusual in the Czech Republic. Indeed, in most countries other than the U.S., flying the national flag on home territory isn't the norm except for at government facilities and institutions. In this case, the reason for the exception seemed to be that the restaurant in question was a traditional Czech restaurant, something increasingly rare within the Czech Republic itself.

I did several versions of this shot, and this one, converted to black and white, is my favorite. I wanted to convey the sheer ugliness of the malls currently wrecking Britain and everything of value in Britain.

I had surprisingly good luck with my Contina on my Carousel trip, and it was actually a good thing that I brought it, since I had originally not known about Destiny USA or any of the absurdities associated with it. Again, nothing against American Eagle, as I suspect the situation in Syracuse would coerce them into locating at Carousel regardless of their preference. I was just at Carousel to shop for Christmas, and I found the whole thing thoroughly amusing to boot. All of the greenwashing was so preposterously, transparently dishonest that it was like something out of The State, The Daily Show, The Onion, or Monty Python, except, it was real, which maybe made it far funnier. I think the only things that kept me from laughing insanely were that, first of all, it was all so depressing as well, and that second of all, when you're under constant surveillance and harrassment from security, even taking photos can be risky, so the combination of photography and laughing is sure to subject you to serious trouble. Human emotions aren't allowed in malls, you know. :-) In any case, to explain what I love about this photo.....First of all, I was amazed at how well the Contina was able to deal with the limited indoor light, but on the other hand there are those massive skylights overhead, which illustrate how natural light has a far stronger effect on film than artificial light. The whole mall is quite bright in the daytime, and I'm sure that if the power went out, it would only be a serious problem for the cash registers and the computer/electronics stores. A very hot or cold day might present problems for climate control, too, but not until the indoor temperature change, which could take awhile. Therefore....if Destiny USA were serious, first of all about the environment, and second of all about profit, they would only use the lighting after dark................. Look carefully. Right under one of their greenwash signs, in the upper left, is a light blazing in broad daylight, under the skylights. Look around the photo carefully and you'll see that all of the other lights are lit, too. This is no doubt costing Pyramid (and the other businesses involved) a fortune, in addition to wrecking the environment by raising demand for electricity, something that nearly every environmental group has been begging people to deal with since the 1970s. If you combine this with the cars, the lack of public transport, and so on...you get the picture. The whole thing was a living satire, and it reinforced the impression I get whenever I'm in the U.S., that ever I go back, the problems have gotten worse, with little action done except to make them worse.

When I was at Carousel at the end of 2007, it was undergoing a renovation into a new complex which will be called, in Orwellian fashion (When are we going to come up with a better metaphorical author than Orwell??? I'm sick of him.) Destiny USA. Pyramid Companies, who own Carousel/Destiny, hope that when complete, the complex will be larger than the Mall of America, which could easily make it the largest such facility in the U.S., and probably the world. As one can see from the condition of Ontrack, and from all of these electric transformers to feed the mall's 24-hour lighting (see the next picture), environmental concerns seem to be the dead last priority, in spite of massive propaganda to the contrary. They aggressively present their (meaningless) environmental awards on their website, such as Greening USA: www.destinyusa.com/ and I would provide the specific link, except for that their website seems to be so poorly designed that Firefox interprets its actions as being equivalent to malware, blocking all the popups. Hmm.....wouldn't it just be better to do additional pages, whether in Flash or HTML???? In any case, while there, I found inadequate public transport provision (although Centro does provide bus services), too many cars, ironically inadequate parking (probably due to lack of public transport combined with the transformers seen here, above ground and in the way) and massive waste of electricity. Why can't they bury the transformers??? I'm not an expert, so I don't know. I do wonder about the fact that the whole site is a brownfield, though. If I were a construction worker, I wonder if I would ask my union to say no to digging there. A much longer and better description of Carousel Mall (albeit one that predates construction) and its problems can be found here however: eddyburg.it/article/articleview/6786/0/221/ This link was censored on Facebook, as a source cited on it (but not included on the site in question) was deemed "abusive." I have no idea what that means, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was merely critical of one corporation or another. Incidentally, I have no idea what the Sports Authority think of all of this. No offense is intended. They're probably just locating where they can make money (Carousel has been accused of gutting the downtown, thus making the location of businesses anywhere but Carousel unprofitable), so none of this is really about them. In addition, this photo, is not very interesting. The next one is much funnier......

As I said in earlier captions, while the Palace of Culture and Science is cultivated and interesting, the surroundings are a bizarre mix of big and small business, both cheesy and not so cheesy. All in all, the effect is a little bit hard to grasp.

And here's a shot of even worse vandalism, much like you would see in London, or maybe New York circa-1982-89. Now...is that stuff on the ground moss, weeds, or....

Here's a shot of the lovely Cerny Most Metro, at the Cerny Most end of the tubular bridge. In reality, it's not this awful inside the station, just outside. I can't tell what that stuff on the footpath is, but I'm sure you can guess.

Here's a better shot of the tubular bridge for the Metro at Cerny Most. This is one of a few such bridges on Line B. This one runs from Cerny Most to Rajska Zahrada, and the other one runs from Luziny to Hurka. This one is in better condition, although both are heavily vandalised.

In a place as filthy and disgusting as Cerny Most, grafitti, public defecation, litter, and miscellaneous vandalism are inevitable. It seems that these things go on most where people figure the place is so vile that nobody in law enforcement will notice, and come to think of it I've never seen a cop out here (don't count on them not showing up if you're really bad, though). No criminals or cops in this picture, though, just litter, grafitti, and panelaks. Surprisingly, nobody has chosen to take a dump on that roof.

In addition to being Metro connected, even more amazingly Cerny Most has some provisions for pedestrians and cyclists, although not nearly enough. The top of the tubular bridge is reserved for pedestrians, although I don't know if bikes are technically allowed on it. I saw some cyclists on it, though, and in any case the other facilities are so bad you won't see many pedestrians in Cerny Most except in the old Sidliste, so the safety hazard would be minimal.

Cerny Most is so spectacularly repulsive that I thought recently, on another bleak car trip out of Prague, that it is indeed a work of art in revulsion. Gaia Mesiah even have a song about it called "Black Bridge," which isn't any less apocalyptic than their other stuff. The song is called "Black Bridge" because that's literally what "Cerny Most" means. Lovely.... Anyway, it is what it looks like, a chaotic collection of strip malls, freeways, highways, litter, and feces shrouded in air pollution, a product first of Communism (it started as a Sidliste), and then of unrestricted capitalism, meaning American-style sprawl without any regard for the environmental and economic consequences. The only upside is that the building and tubular bridge you see on the left is a Metro station, the eastern terminus of Metro Line B.

And...here's a sunset!! :-) The buildings are part of a new cinema and mall, in a redevelopment project common in Britain, which isn't nearly as much of a shipping country as it once was.

I originally had it noted down that I took this in Cleveland Union Terminal, but I was suspicious that this was incorrect, and indeed Simplyjake has informed me that really it's a shopping mall, the first of its kind in the U.S. See his comments below for more info.

After I arrived in Berlin, there wasn't much to do for a few hours, so I walked around taking photos before getting the next train #NZ242 for Bruxelles-Midi, at 2146. Berlin Hbf was recently restored and rebuilt massively, and bears little resemblence at this point to the steam-era station. It's as much mall as station, like Washington Union, Cleveland Union Terminal (but with more trains), London Liverpool Street, or London Waterloo in this respect. The food isn't too bad, and the shopping is so-so. I didn't find anything worth buying.