Andrew Burke’s “Abandoned Targets of Canada” Receives National Media Attention
Thu. Sep. 17, 2015
Andrew Burke’s online crowdsourced photography project, “Abandoned Targets of Canada” (ATOC), has been drawing national media attention. The project consists of a Tumblr site that documents abandoned Target retail outlets across the country. It can be viewed here.
ccording to Prof. Burke, "I started ATOC after taking a few photographs of Target sites in Winnipeg. The original one dates back to April, when I Instagrammed a shot of the St James location and titled it "Abandoned Targets of Canada #1" as a joke. It's the kind of title artists give to a photographic series and, even though I don't think I had any intention at that point taking any more, I thought it would make a good series."
Public interest in the project soon took off, with friends, family, and strangers sending Prof. Burke their own photos of abandoned Targets in their communities. In August, national media outlets started to take an interest and ran stories about the project. Perhaps the biggest sign that ATOC has entered popular culture is that BuzzFeed Canada used ATOC as the basis of one of its famous listicles: http://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/sad-abandoned-targets-in-canada-that-are-sad#.eg28JX8vX
As of September 16, ATOC has photographs of 86 of the 133 Target stores that opened and then closed in Canada. Prof. Burke is hoping to complete the project in its entirety with the help of “roving correspondents” from across the country.
You can read some of the media coverage here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/08/27/abandoned-targets-of-canada-tumblr-page_n_8050034.html
http://globalnews.ca/news/2185192/vacant-target-canada-locations-inspire-tumblr-page/