Description
At the beginning of 2001, I began taking pictures of recently abandoned offices, and the things people had left behind. This project was more than photography for me. It was economic archeology. America has not suffered such a vertiginous economic collapse since the 1930’s, and I wanted to document the human cost, while it was happening. There is something very strange about walking into a recently abandoned office. The heavy, Pompeii-like stillness, punctuated only by the occasional sound of the air-conditioning, turning itself on. A coat-hanger waiting patiently for a coat. A limp happy-birthday balloon on the floor. A drawer stuffed with take-out menus. Everywhere, signs of life, interrupted. -Phillip Toledano
![Bankrupt [Hardcover] Phillip Toledano](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/518KJYZR4XL._SX445_-1.jpg)
![Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (Metropolitan Museum of Art (Hardcover)) [Hardcover] Cleland, Elizabeth](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/71eoIqSeqpL._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)

![Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot [Hardcover] Asia Society; Chiu, Melissa and Yun, Michelle](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61YM9OYqnL._SY466_-1-300x450.jpg)
![Huichol Painting: 300 Piece Puzzle [Misc. Supplies] Pomegranate Communications Inc.](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/51q6V2wsdWL-1-300x400.jpg)
![A Divine Light : Northern Renaissance Paintings From the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery [Paperback] Kennedy, Trinita & John Nolan](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/517Sf6pRpFL._SY342_-1.jpg)
![The Art of German Stoneware, 1300-1900: From the Charles W. Nichols Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art [Paperback] Hinton, Jack](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61x0T1TJZWL._SY342_-1.jpg)
![Stuart Walker: Modernist Master Revealed (A Retrospective Exhibition) [Paperback] Payne, Aaron; Stuart Walker](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/91lyPzkoVL._SY342_-1-300x342.jpg)
![Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion [Hardcover] Blum, Dilys E.](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61poixzCplL._SY522_-1-300x450.jpg)
![Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes from the Prado [Hardcover] Loughman, Thomas J.; Morris, Kathleen M.; Yeager-Crasselt, Lara; Burke, Jill and Portús, Javier](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/61GM3dFcJJL._SY425_-1-300x425.jpg)
![Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes [Paperback] Ebbinghaus, Susanne; Anderson, Lisa; Bewer, Francesca G.; Bielfeldt, Ruth; Eremin, Katherine; Hemingway, Seán; Lie, Henry; Mattusch, Carol C.; Riederer, Josef and Staehli, Adrian](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/516k-q2VTKL._SY385_-1.jpg)

![Bankrupt [Hardcover] Phillip Toledano](https://artwheelshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/518KJYZR4XL._SX445_-1-300x338.jpg)