The Holdouts: Ben Marcin’s 16-Year Survey of Baltimore’s Abandoned Homes

Photographer Ben Marcin has spent the past 16 years traveling through Baltimore and the Eastern Shore to capture images of abandoned row houses, vacant farmhouses, and short-lived homeless camps. His work records properties that have escaped demolition, as well as camps that never persisted beyond a year. Marcin’s images avoid depicting the people who once inhabited these sites, a choice he says heightens the series’ mystery.

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Marcin’s fieldwork has taken him through a range of hazards—including ticks, copperhead snakes, drug dealers, hunters with high-powered rifles, and farmers on ATVs. Over the decades, Marcin shifted from global travel to focusing on locations within a short distance of his own home in Baltimore, allowing him to “understand where I live.”

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Although none of the photographed properties were displaced by a shopping center, highway overpass, or casino, Marcin argues they embody a broader definition of a “holdout”: the act of resisting or refusing an offered change. The series therefore explores how abandoned dwellings stand as silent testimonies to personal and communal resistance, emphasizing the stark context that surrounds each structure.

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The collection is assembled in a debut photobook titled The Holdouts, published by Gost. The book presents the visual narrative without accompanying portraits of former residents, reinforcing the focus on place rather than people.

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• “It was important to show as much of the surroundings as possible in order to achieve a strong sense of isolation and context.” — Ben Marcin

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• “No shopping center, highway overpass, or gambling casino ever took their place. However, they do personify a more straightforward definition of what a holdout is, namely, the act of resisting something or refusing to accept what is offered,” — Ben Marcin

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