The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland will be the scene, Friday, June 12 at 6 p.m. for a book-signing party and presentation by Brian Vanden Brink of Camden, whose stunning new book, Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America, is published this month by Down East Books. The event is sponsored by Camden Real Estate of Camden.

The book reveals another side of Vanden Brink’s work.

By photographing the interiors and exteriors of magnificent homes, Brian Vanden Brink has built a reputation as one of America’s more sought-after architectural photographers. Nevertheless, he has always also been drawn to the mystery, sense of loss, and unexpected beauty found in abandoned architecture. Over the years, he has stolen time from photographing the homes of the affluent to focus on deserted homes and architectural ruins – and their relationships to the surrounding landscape. In Ruin: Photographs of A Vanishing America, Vanden Brink captures and illuminates in stunning images homes, churches, mills, bridges, grain elevators, storefronts, the 300-foot-tall chimney of a lead smelter, the pitch-black depths of an Air Force plutonium storage vault, and more. Through Vanden Brink’s lens, these structures become iconic, representing an America that was built and then abandoned. His photos capture the long, slow demise of structures that once held immense import and usefulness. With text by historic preservation and architecture expert Howard Mansfield, this collection of photos grants permanence to places that may soon vanish forever.

The Farnsworth Art Museum is located on Main Street, Rockland. General admission: Adults $12; seniors and students 17 and older $10; children 16 and younger, museum members and Rockland residents free.