Industry often forms the core of urban community: where there is work, there is pay; and populations will flock. Around this core are built elements that define and strengthen a community: places of worship, transportation hubs, entertainment venues, and commercial centers. But when industry wanes, what becomes of its communities?

Rust Belt explores three communities hit hard by the shifting American economy of the 1980s: Buffalo, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. Wealth and prosperity are apparent in the grand, ornate architecture and sprawling factories. But these images reveal how even the most sacred structures and the biggest monuments can be forsaken when workers are idled.

It has taken decades, but populations are returning to these cities in efforts to revitalize. In best-case scenarios, the abandoned structures are restored and repurposed. But to remember how they were abandoned serves as a reminder of how fragile communities can be.