People love looking at photos of abandoned buildings. The more opulent a structure once was — and the more dilapidated it currently is — the better. Chicago-based photographer Eric Holubow's new book, Abandoned: America's Vanishing Landscapes, released this summer, focuses on the product of his explorations inside abandoned properties. Holubow believes there is "a degree of fatalism" in his work, as well as a reminder that buildings aren't immortal. There's a "shared fate" between a building and the individuals who built it, he says. Like a car crash or a house fire, the viewer can't look away for fear that they may miss a rare opportunity to stare Death right in the eye. Holubow also believes these images symbolize a loss of faith in powerful American institutions — government and capitalism come to mind. Thus, photos of the disarray left behind by a shuttered school or the ruins of a once-glamorous celebrity hot spot take on deeper meanings.