"My interest in photographing ghost towns and deserted sites is not simply to document the abandonment of once thriving communities, but also to frame what I see in a way that depicts structural decay in addition to telling an aesthetic story from the abstract beauty of their ruins.  I sought out these vestiges of our discarded culture in the attempt to artfully portray the sense of melancholy and loss in these structures and objects that were once part of vibrant societies in addition to the abstract beauty exacted by natural decay over time. Locations include sites in Montana, Utah, Pennsylvania and New York."

-Mark Stephen Schmidt