“We’re all being manipulated in the mall,” the photographer Stephen DiRado says. But his photos elicit a certain nostalgia, almost in spite of themselves.
There’s a reason that the mall’s corporate honchos—who had signed a contract giving him free rein to document daily life there—“freaked out,” in DiRado’s words, when they first saw the results. Where was the evidence of all the fun that they sponsored? The clowns? The Santa Claus?
For Mall Series, Massachusetts-based photographer Stephen DiRado preserves a distinctive slice of American culture in the 1980s, chronicling daily life for the Mall Rats of the now-closed Worcester Galleria.
For Mall Series, Massachusetts-based photographer Stephen DiRado preserves a distinctive slice of American culture in the 1980s, chronicling daily life for the Mall Rats of the now-closed Worcester Galleria.
Also I am not afraid to fail because failure breeds success. Strange as it is, making an incredibly bad photograph, and be painfully aware of it, means you hit rock-bottom. This sets up a series of challenges to break into a new territory. It is frightening as taking on a new relationship.
