In every town, in every country in the world there are those overlooked buildings. There are objects in the urban environment that appear again and again throughout the landscape, once practical in both structure and use – restaurants and roadside motels, petrol stations and cinemas – but now gone bust, deserted and left to fill an empty space. These buildings will vary slightly from town to town, but will rarely diverge from the utilitarian blueprint from which they were all constructed.
German photographer Matthias Heiderich is reassessing these spaces, turning his camera on these background artefacts that fill the lots between landmarks. Taken during a four month road trip through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California Nevada and Wyoming, his photo series ‘Nowhere In Particular’ captures the neutrality of such buildings and their ability to signify both everywhere and nowhere at once.
Whilst undeniably striking pieces of architecture, the buildings Matthias chooses as his subject offer little indication of their specific locations, but rather assimilate themselves neatly into the surroundings, comprising the boarded-up backdrop of North America’s west-coast.
