The land that hugs the southern tip of Lake Michigan and reaches out along the fingers of the Calumet River was once home to much of what was new and exciting in America. Steel mills churned out the rails that made up the country’s transportation system and later forged the underpinnings of buildings that reached for the sky. But over the years, those industries have shed jobs and left those once-bustling neighborhoods, towns and cities struggling for an economic foothold. Photographer Gary Cialdella spent two decades documenting this landscape of shuttered factories, half-empty planned communities and the hardscrabble life that remains. His new book is called The Calumet Region: An American Place.

Book Signing:
Saturday, October 24 from 2-4 p.m. at the Borders at Southlake Mall in Merrillville, Indiana.

Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. he’ll give a gallery talk and signing at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University