America the Abandoned: Captivating Portraits of Deserted Homes

by Bryan Sansivero

Overview

Peer into the mysterious world of abandoned homes across the United States with this fascinating photography book—a visual exploration of what makes up a life, and what we leave in our wake.

Photographer Bryan Sansivero has been uncovering abandoned homes for more than a decade, traveling across the country to capture them on film before they crumble completely, never sure of what he might find. Sansivero documents the inhabitants’ everyday living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms just as he found them, showcasing their unique furniture, clothing, books, appliances, toys, artwork, and other personal items, which often appear as if the owners were just there a moment ago. The stories of the former tenants remain mostly unknown, but the images are haunting time capsules, and a reminder that everything we own is temporary, and eventually will be left behind or forgotten.   

There is an element of mystery and eeriness that this imagery evokes. In addition to those who are entranced by beautiful coffee table books, America the Abandoned will entice those who love horror films and books—from Stranger Things to The Shining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781648294402
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/14/2025
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208

About the Author

Bryan Sansivero is a renowned and award-winning photographer known for his colorful, evocative, and unique pictures of abandoned places. He is a filmmaker whose eye for detail and his documentative style will bring the viewer on an emotional journey into places rarely ventured or seen.

Table of Contents

House locations include:

Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia

Editorial Reviews

Unlike much so-called ruin porn—soulless images that glamorize the blight they showcase—Sansivero’s photos bring out the humanity of the people who once occupied these buildings. . . . His photographs recall the eerie images of abandoned buildings in Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear accident. But no cataclysmic disaster befell the houses in this book. Instead, what we see is the creeping decay of much of American life. Ghostly images of vacant homes, sensitively captured.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Even long-neglected spaces clearly suggest the shape of the lives they once contained. . . . Providing a few sentences beneath each photo, Sansivero frames each space as a time capsule of a person’s past, simultaneously recognizing life’s ephemerality and reminding readers to cherish the ‘little things we hold so dear, and that they will come and go, like those of others before us.’ Alternately moving, eerie, and dramatic, it’s both a visual spectacle and a vibrant ode to forgotten lives.”—Publishers Weekly

"The texture of ruin with the radiance of Technicolor. A classic in the urbex catalog."—Dylan Thuras, cofounder of Atlas Obscura

"America the Abandoned captures an amorphous time between the past and the future at once frozen in time and ever-changing. Brian's vision of America is a place I want to curl up in and never leave."—Elizabeth Finkelstein, founder of Cheap Old Houses

“Bryan Sansivero illuminates all the haunted beauty of  America’s deserted homes in his new book. He finds unsettled spirits among the ruin, all of which he photographs in sumptuous color. In short, his photographs manage to inhabit the souls of the people who once lived there.”—Laura Holson, writer, traveler, and founder of The Box Sessions

From the Publisher