Detroit In Ruins!

Wind Chaser · « **on:** 13 Jan 2011, 11:24 pm »

16 hard hitting images of a city in decline.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit?intcmp=239

pardales · « **Reply #1 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 12:30 am »

Lived in the metro Detroit area nearly all my life. I've driven by or been in many of those neighborhoods and buildings. I have visited many other rustbelt cities as well over the years. While I don't want to underplay the difficulties Detroit has, you could take pictures of the inside of abandoned buildings like that in almost any medium/large size U.S. city (think Cleveland, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, etc.). It is as much a commentary of how "flight" and sprawl from our U.S. city centers beginning in the late 50's has left most of our cities in decay.

Again Detroit DOES have its problems and decay, but those pictures could have been taken in Cleveland, Buffalo, or a lot of other cities in this country. As photos, they are very compelling though.......

JackD201 · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 03:00 am »

The picture of the library with books rotting away was the saddest one for me.

ServerAdmin · « **Reply #3 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 01:37 pm »

I removed a good number of posts here. This thread is in Eye-Fidelity - please keep commentary related to the photography.

pardales · « **Reply #4 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 01:47 pm »

Quote from: ServerAdmin on 14 Jan 2011, 01:37 pm

I removed a good number of posts here. This thread is in Eye-Fidelity - please keep commentary related to the photography.

Very good call and thank you.

nathanm · « **Reply #5 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 03:09 pm »

Damn, a genuine ruckus happens and I wasn't around to see it. Maybe next time. Er, I mean, hopefully it will never happen again.

HAITIMAN · « **Reply #6 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 06:29 pm »

Stunning pictures!

Well, a generation (or two) of Americans decided they preferred to drive cars manufactured in Japan, Germany, and now Korea.....China next?

JLM · « **Reply #7 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 08:00 pm »

The images offer a stark reflection of apathy, changing values, and decay in the very fabric of civilization. (I know, I've driven in and out of Detroit monthly for over 20 years.)

soundbitten1 · « **Reply #8 on:** 14 Jan 2011, 08:28 pm »

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Bob Dylan

mjosef · « **Reply #9 on:** 15 Jan 2011, 12:07 am »

Aye...I feel for this house...

Diamond Dog · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 Jan 2011, 06:36 am »

The shot that sticks with me is the police station - all those photos of victims, perps, good guys, bad guys, white hats , black hats all thrown together without thought or judgement into one big messy pile - just like life. That photographer's got eyes.

D.

jackman · « **Reply #11 on:** 17 Jan 2011, 10:26 pm »

Amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been to Detroit in a long time but those pictures are stunning. They have a Mad Max quality and some appear as if the people just picked up and left without packing things like chairs, phones or books. The lobby with the piano, and the abandoned classroom were particularly erie.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #12 on:** 24 Jan 2011, 10:45 pm »

Those are some amazing pictures! It's hard to imagine venues as majestic as that theater and the hotel ball room fall into such disrepair. But even in such a state of decomposition they're still stately and elegant in their own way.

jackman · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Jan 2011, 10:49 pm »

Rob, I agree. There is something ghostly about the pictures and I can't put my finger on it. The old venues were probably kept up pretty well for a long time and suddenly the bottom fell out. I'm amazed at how well preserved some of the things look in the pictures. Maybe that's what is perplexing me, the fact that I expect things to look worse than they do. Although in some cases things can't look much worse. Creapy stuff.

Mike Nomad · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Jan 2011, 11:05 pm »

Absolutely heartbreaking. So much fabulous architecture fading to rubble, along with the effort from untold numbers of skilled trades people. All of the life that went into and through those buildings, gone.

16 mirrors, and only ghosts for reflections.

jackman · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Jan 2011, 11:28 pm »

http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/36682/detroit-still-life#index/0

More interesting pictures.

JLM · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Jan 2011, 12:20 am »

You can see why pulling out of the subsurface freeways in Detroit can suddenly become quite scary and why I gave my daughter and her boyfriend strict orders to leave Detroit before sundown when they went to the last Lions game.

We inspected a licensed hospital there about 12 years ago and literally every room had moisture damage, 48 of 52 exhaust fans had stopped working, radiological equipment hadn't been fixed in years, and pigeons had overtaken the air handling unit serving surgery.

Dave Bing (former Pistons player) is mayor now and his master plan for renewal includes bulldozing entire city blocks. Just a few years ago the mayor had his own jet!?

jackman · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Jan 2011, 02:40 am »

http://web.mac.com/keithmarlowe/keithmarlowephotography/front.html

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #18 on:** 25 Jan 2011, 02:55 am »

Stunning photographs indeed. The photographers really seemed to capture the feeling of each shot very well. I could stare at every one for a considerable amount of time to say the least. Those pictures speak volumes.

Bob

sebrof · « **Reply #19 on:** 25 Jan 2011, 03:32 am »

Quote from: pardales on 14 Jan 2011, 12:30 am

Lived in the metro Detroit area nearly all my life. I've driven by or been in many of those neighborhoods and buildings. I have visited many other rustbelt cities as well over the years. While I don't want to underplay the difficulties Detroit has, you could take pictures of the inside of abandoned buildings like that in almost any medium/large size U.S. city (think Cleveland, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, etc.). It is as much a commentary of how "flight" and sprawl from our U.S. city centers beginning in the late 50's has left most of our cities in decay.

Again Detroit DOES have its problems and decay, but those pictures could have been taken in Cleveland, Buffalo, or a lot of other cities in this country. As photos, they are very compelling though.......

My son plays hockey, and we went to a tournament a couple of years ago in Detroit. One of the other Dads was a camera bug and found that there is an "underground" (as in black market, not under the gouund) map and guide to these buildings and houses. He brought back some stunning pictures.

Pardales - I believe what makes Detroit unique vs. Pitt and Cleveland etc. is that Detroit had such grand, over the top buildings and architecture because of the boon in the early 1900s that maybe those other cities didn't quite experience. The contrast is what is so striking.