Northridge | film photography in an abandoned mall on Black Friday

A routine photo-docu visit to the 20-year abandoned Northridge Mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Formerly Milwaukee's largest shopping center, in operation from 1972-2002: Northridge is a location I've documented extensively in the years since its use for a 2017 viral video. Today the mall stands in an extreme state of decay, condemned and buried in red tape as city leadership wrestles for control of the property from a Chinese entity, who only seems to exist via their lawyer.
This video serves as a pilot for sharing photography work on KZbin... may do more of these where conditions allow.
I used a (fussy) Mamiya C330f twin-lens reflex camera and CineStill 400D 120 film for this shoot.
www.jonrev.com

[@jonrev]

Update: in 2024 ownership of the Northridge Mall property was secured by the City of Milwaukee through tax foreclosure. The former Boston Store anchor, long-owned by the city, is now under demolition, with the rest of the mall slated to follow later this year.

[@cynthiaj.simmons870]

Very, very excellent video Jon!!! 🤗❤️🤗❤️🤗❤️ You video sums up the scope of this mall. Besides we all know the history or this mall so it's nice to just see a mall video and hearvno commentary. Because not not many KZbinrs can only get to explore a place once and to explore this mall again and just make it feel like you're there exploring it yourself it's an awesome vide lomand pictures too!!! Me being a KZbin Urban Explorer not a physical one I will go backnover this video of this mall again after they demolish the building. I'm not free the area I'm from Illinois and I lived in Rockford for only 17 years and never new about this mall to my neighbors to the north of me until I started to go exploring here on KZbin. Again very, very excellent and amazing job theses videos you did of North Ridge Mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!!! 🤗❤️🤗❤️🤗❤️

[@brianwahlen3768]

Thanks for posting this. Truly amazing work, just like all the rest of yours. It's just a shame what has happened at the mall in the past couple years. This mall has been a part of my entire life. I was there the week after it opened and a week before it closed. I spent most of my childhood and all of my teen years there. In my later years, I worked close to the mall and spent lunch hours weekly at the mall. I still live and work close and drive by it daily. It's just so sad.......

[@palm1986]

Amazing film, I remember watching you back when you explored the Dixie Square Mall

[@andrewmartin4071]

Amazing shots as always!

[@erintheairduck]

Love the symmetry and asymmetry in your shots ✨

[@fisitron7256]

Holy fuck… this is amazing. Would love to see more of it.

[@MadDrx]

awesome video. Damn shame that mall looks like that now

[@pamelaaverrett5848]

Fantastic pictures! I remember my parents having a similar camera and it was either broken or my dad didn’t know how to use it 🤣

[@ItsaRomethingeveryday]

This place is so destroyed 😳 wow

[@mst3kanita]

4:13: do you by any chance have that bag? Or even just a picture of the bag laid out flat? "lie here, pee here" is my favorite graffiti

[@jonrev]

Funny enough, I found a new/old stock box of them, along with another design.

[@Kozinu]

I'd also love to see a photo of that!

[@radar_the_fox]

Are you planning on doing century III mall in the near future?

[@jonrev]

Did it a month ago-- taking time editing the photos, may sit on them even longer. Extreme water damage, aside: C3 is going down the same path as Northridge, Lincoln, Rolling Acres and other abandoned malls in getting trashed as we speak, due largely in part to mouthbreathers out there spamming the place.

[@handle2033]

Looks like a nice place to explore. Amazon will probably replace it, like they did with Randall Park Mall.

[@jonrev]

As of last Friday it's actually under contract to be purchased by Phoenix Investors, Milwaukee-based developers of light industrial and warehouse complexes. Long-term plans seem to be gutting and repurposing the structure.

[@handle2033]

@@jonrev Was this you in the video with the face mask on? Or someone else

[@jonrev]

@@handle2033 that is me, yes

[@richardespinoza2839]

Someone should eventually take some of your archived videos of the mall and recreate them shot by shot

[@jonrev]

I have a binder containing photo prints of every storefront in the mall, taken between 1989 and 1992ish (also showing updates as tenants changed or were walled-off). I'm thinking next time I'll attempt to recreate a modern interpretation, did something similar at Dixie Square Mall 12 years ago.

[@Creepereye20]

​@@jonrev Is it possible for you to digitalize these and send these photos over? Im trying to recreate Northridge mall in minecraft set in the 80s-90s and these photos would be nice to have.

[@jonrev]

​@@Creepereye20 It will be a big project to do the whole binder, though some of the photos are already on my website. Biggest challenge with that is when some tenants changed hands, Northridge Management simply taped new photos over the old. These will require extreme care to cleanly separate them. Unfortunately I've also put an indefinite pause on releasing archival media recovered from the mall. In general it's an extremely time-consuming process to conserve and share that material with respect to the mall and the people it meant most to, and lately a rash of both KZbin and TikTok producers have been taking advantage of this. Pains me to see my risk and sweat defaced with corporate sponsors, without any input on the matter.

[@Kozinu]

@@Creepereye20 That sounds really interesting, I'd love to see it. Have you put any photos or videos of any of it online yet?

[@Kozinu]

@jonrev I appreciate the fact that you're considerate of the people who have memories tied to this place. It's a shame you've had so much trouble with things though. I really enjoyed the video. Thanks for doing what you do, it's amazing to be able to see this kind of documentation of somewhat familiar surroundings. My memory has gotten progressively worse over the years so it's really great to have random memories come back that I'd completely forgotten.

[@wickster2121]

omg Mr. Bulky

[@lauriesmith5008]

It’s craZy to me that this Chinese company thinks this property can be saved.

[@jonrev]

Five years ago the place was a time capsule, even close to turn-key condition. Now? Not a chance.

[@SURENITY]

@@jonrev Really? 2017??

[@jonrev]

​@@SURENITY I did my first shoot here in February 2018, place was pretty much mint with minimal graffiti and no broken glass. Three weeks later I came back and found damage right away. By summer shit had really hit the fan and it's been downhill from there... I've got stories.

[@gennys8202]

@@jonrev I would love to hear the stories!