A PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES THE SPIRIT OF THE FADING WORLD OF MALL-TOWN, STOREFRONT DISPLAY WINDOWS

David Ensminger is an instructor of English, the humanities, and folklore at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. His books include, among others, Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation (University Press of Mississippi, 2011) and Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin’ Hopkins (University of Texas Press, 2013).

by David Ensminger

For years, around the United States, I’ve been photographing store-window displays that I’ve associated with the world of mom-and-pop capitalism — the windows of shops that are one-off, family-run, and independent. As holdouts among the world of corporate-conglomerate, big-box retailers, they remain some of the last idiosyncratic spaces in American street life.