Artist lecture: Brian Ulrich, 10/14/09

I was intrigued by Ulrich's photographs and how clean and straightforward they were. His concept dealing with abandoned retail stores made me feel incredibly melancholy because I've worked in retail in the past and there is nothing worse than looking out of your store front and seeing a barren parking lot. For me it was great on one hand because it meant you didn't have much to do and the possibility of dealing with annoying and irate customers was slim to none but at the same time, it made you feel almost empty inside, as though you were wasting your time standing there, hoping for a customer to walk in, knowing that if sales didn't pick up for the week then hours would most likely be cut the following. I felt like Ulrich definitely captured this feeling in his photographs.