Vintage photos from the 1980s show America's shopping malls in their heyday

Stephen Di Rado

Remember the good old days.

• Photographer Stephen DiRado spent two and a half years visiting shopping malls in Massachusetts in the 1980s documenting everyday life.
• The photos that have emerged present unique time capsule of both the decade and a time when shopping malls were at their peak.
• The photos are a stark contrast to the photos we see today of empty and dying shopping malls in middle America.

As an emerging photographer in the 1980s, Stephen DiRado began exploring malls in and around his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, as a means of exploring his own middle-class upbringing.

At the time, shopping malls had become the meeting place for America's youth, as teens of every different stripe milled about the food courts, smoked cigarettes, and went from chain store to chain store in search of temporary employment.

For two and a half years, DiRado visited malls in Worcester and all over Massachusetts for nearly 18 hours a week to document mall-goers and the strange world that American capitalism gave birth to.

DiRado shared a selection of the photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at his website.