Very happy to report coverage of the book in the New York Times – “The Beauty That Remains Beyond the Final Curtain” – and the Huffington Post: “Abandoned Theaters Full of Stunning Drama“. Above, a photo of the Majestic Theater in East St. Louis, Illinois.

May 2 at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn – a joint appearance with Lazar Kunstmann and Jon Lackman, who will show a short film on their guerrilla restoration of the Pantheon clock in Paris. More details here.

On May 4, I will be at Back Pages Books in Waltham, MA, joined by Bryan Papciak who wrote the book’s preface. Here is their event listing – hope to see some of you there!

Some wonderful responses to the book from the outside world: nice notices on Flavorwire, Daily Mail, Architizer, Curbed, Architecture Atlas and even Business Insider – with extra special thanks to my friends John Law and Scott Beale from Laughing Squid! John has accompanied me on many of these explorations and is also coming out with a book – please check out Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society for more stories of unusual urban playgrounds, including an installation we built of found materials on an abandoned state hospital stage in 2002.

Exciting times! The book has finally arrived and I couldn’t be happier with how the photos came out. The staff at Prestel has been wonderful to work with, really taking care to reproduce the images with excellent quality. Thank you Prestel!!

It’s already in European bookstores and a few publications have picked it up, such as the German national weekly Die Zeit, which published a large-format slide show. There are plans for book presentations in New York, Detroit, Boston and Paris – more information soon!

Cream and purple stage curtains making their way across the floor in a Midwestern auditorium.

An atmospheric-style theater from 1929, the Ramova Theater is slowly crumbling to pieces in Chicago’s Bridgeport area. At least it is getting a lot of love from neighbors who would like to see it preserved. Really all you would need are some generators and dusk masks and you won’t even care what’s playing on the screen. To follow its progress, check out the Ramova Theater facebook page.

More photos here.

The book Stages of Decay has a new publication date, April 23, 2013. Here are more details from the publisher.