How Fairs Fare

For the past 150 years world's fairs and expos have provided us with product introductions large and small: the elevator, motion pictures, and squished pennies (large); ice cream cones, the Ferris Wheel, and television (small). But what happens when the wiz-bang newness of a world's fair packs up shop and leaves town? Left behind is a legacy not just of product innovations, but of innovative buildings and grand plans.

Photographer Jade Doskow has been revisiting past world's fair sites and capturing how those sites have fared. Her photos are usually stark and unpopulated, a far cry from the bustling days of the fair. But they remind us that such fairs aren't just fleeting glimpses into what the future holds, but they're also lasting legacies that bear testament to where we've been.

Pictured is Jade Doskow's photo of the U.S. Pavilion from the 1976 Montreal Expo