Atlantic City is a metaphor for decline, but also a very real place, which lost 11,000 jobs since 2014. Is Atlantic City emblematic of what is happening to the country as a whole?” When the Trump Taj Mahal opened in 1980, he proclaimed it ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ – but five of the city’s casinos closed down within four years.
“The closure of Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza have sent this already depressed city reeling”, writes Rose. Empty lots, huge vacant buildings made of painted cardboard and chipped concrete, all under the same cloud of sadness and decay. Rose has documented what remains of the city in the aftermath of the casino explosion. Looking at the haunting book by the same name by the American photographer Brian Rose, that statement of Trump’s does not bode well for the rest of the nation. On the presidential campaign trail he boasted of his ‘success’ in Atlantic City, of how he would do for America what he had done for Atlantic City.
Donald Trump was one of those who built casinos on the Jersey shore, the more exotic and fanciful their themes the better. And then, as it began to fade, the casinos came. Its hotels were the largest and finest, its nightclubs legendary. Atlantic City, on the coast of New Jersey, was born in the mid-nineteenth century and grew so big, so fast, that it captured the American imagination.
