D e t r o i t

[Rizzo]

Great photos! It's great to see the people too. Seeing the Brewster Douglas projects brings back memories of wandering around those hearing the smoke detectors chirp hopelessly in those empty hallways.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by hudkina

If by "all", you mean ruin porn, then I guess he did...

He clearly made it deep into the Midtown area, yet all he cared to show were the abandoned projects and the few remaining dilapidated mansions in Brush Park? While the Eastern Market shots were interesting for sure, it would have been nice if the photos were a bit more representative of the area.

I was thinking exactly the same thing; I guess you have to be from here to see it. I really liked the photos, I mean really; but it seems outside the Eastern Market shots, the photographer went looking for the usual/predictable in the two most bombed-out inner-city hoods in the city (Cass Park and Brush Park), which are literally right next to each other and immediately outside downtown. It seems like much like the ESB or Times Square in NYC, Brush Park and Cass Park have kind of become the touristy postcard shots of post-apocalyptic Detroit. The funny thing was that he was in the Cass Park area and literally missed the entire Cass Corridor, which would have offered some very interesting photos and added a bit of context.

I don't mind folks showing this stuff -- it's as much a part of Detroit as say Palmer Woods -- but it's kind of deceiving without offering it within even a bit of context. I hate to be "that guy", but you can imagine having an area you know reduced down to a single them time-and-time again without any kind of context.

[Xander202]

Originally Posted by LMich

I was thinking exactly the same thing; I guess you have to be from here to see it. I really liked the photos, I mean really; but it seems outside the Eastern Market shots, the photographer went looking for the usual/predictable in the two most bombed-out inner-city hoods in the city (Cass Park and Brush Park), which are literally right next to each other and immediately outside downtown. It seems like much like the ESB or Times Square in NYC, Brush Park and Cass Park have kind of become the touristy postcard shots of post-apocalyptic Detroit. The funny thing was that he was in the Cass Park area and literally missed the entire Cass Corridor, which would have offered some very interesting photos and added a bit of context.

I don't mind folks showing this stuff -- it's as much a part of Detroit as say Palmer Woods -- but it's kind of deceiving without offering it within even a bit of context. I hate to be "that guy", but you can imagine having an area you know reduced down to a single them time-and-time again without any kind of context.

I do understand what you are saying, I find it annoying when people come to London and photograph just Big Ben and Buckingham Palace etc...but thats not how it was. I came for an afternoon and a morning, and the only planning I did was that I wanted to go to the market, which I did. The rest I just wandered where the winds took me.

I've never heard of Cass Park and Brush Park, and certainly didn't look for the 'touristy postcard shots of post-apocalyptic Detroit'. I just walked and photographed what I saw. If I went to the "two most bombed-out inner-city hoods" then that was just a coincidence.

I am sorry if i didn't give enough context. I don't try to document cities as such, I approach it as a photographer. I take pictures of what interests me. So rather than viewing this thread as an attempt to portray accurately the city of Detroit, just view it as a collection of my photographs that happen to have been taken in Detroit.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Xander202

I take pictures of what interests me.

This.

And that's all that matters. No one here is under any requirements to provide a holistic and diverse photo documentary of the entire city. Do whatever you find fascinating about a place. To the folks I've taken to Detroit, the presence of large abandoned buildings downtown is completely foreign. It is an attraction.

This type of discussion comes up in every Detroit thread. You aren't the first. A large thread highlighting all neighborhoods would be attractive, but it's also a chore as well. Instead you invested in the quality of your subjects and you did an extraordinary job.

[mousquet]

Nice picture touch and market scenes. For real.
If you ever came to Pairs, I could indicate a few suburbs that you would surely be interested in. Hurry up before they're torn down, and make sure to save a few hundred pounds for a new camera, no matter what your accent is.

[hudkina]

The collection was great for what it is, I was just replying to the "captured it all" comment. I understand there is more drama in an abandoned 19th century mansion than there is in a fully restored 19th century mansion. I understand there is more drama in an abandoned public housing complex than there is in a public housing complex that was converted to market-rate and senior housing. I understand that people aren't interested in the parts of Detroit that are working. The photos are great, and most people should realize that they aren't completely representative of the city and especially the region. However, for those who do think this is "all" there is to see in the city I think it is worth pointing out the lack of context in the photos, regardless of their artistic merit.

Midtown Detroit may not hold a candle to the major Global Cities, but it is a great urban neighborhood with a plethora of interesting qualities. If he was able to make Eastern Market look so hip and edgy, Midtown should have been cake.

[flar]

I wish I could have got to wander around as much when I last visited Detroit. I probably would have photographed a lot of the same things. I mean, those projects are right across the freeway from the Eastern Market, and you can see that there is a neighbourhood of Victorian mansions in various states of repair right from Woodward. How can you not photograph stuff like that?

[Evo5Boise]

Excellent thread. I spent some time in Detroit years ago and I would love to go back.

[volguus zildrohar]

Ah, Detroit, Detroit, Detroit. See you in the Fall Classic.

Other places have guard dogs - there, attack dogs.



And is that a Gaia?

[tallboy66]

Originally Posted by Xander202

I do understand what you are saying, I find it annoying when people come to London and photograph just Big Ben and Buckingham Palace etc...but thats not how it was. I came for an afternoon and a morning, and the only planning I did was that I wanted to go to the market, which I did. The rest I just wandered where the winds took me.

I've never heard of Cass Park and Brush Park, and certainly didn't look for the 'touristy postcard shots of post-apocalyptic Detroit'. I just walked and photographed what I saw. If I went to the "two most bombed-out inner-city hoods" then that was just a coincidence.

I am sorry if i didn't give enough context. I don't try to document cities as such, I approach it as a photographer. I take pictures of what interests me. So rather than viewing this thread as an attempt to portray accurately the city of Detroit, just view it as a collection of my photographs that happen to have been taken in Detroit.

Detroit is well known FOR it's abandoned buildings and an overall empty city so it's up to the people to change that image, the pics don't lie.

The extremes of entire blocks of abandoned buildings and the shoulder bumping people and cars Mack to Gratiot traffic jam IS Detroit.

[Benonie]

High Quality Pictures!

[Xander202]

Originally Posted by tallboy66

Detroit is well known FOR it's abandoned buildings and an overall empty city so it's up to the people to change that image, the pics don't lie.

The extremes of entire blocks of abandoned buildings and the shoulder bumping people and cars Mack to Gratiot traffic jam IS Detroit.

The sad truth of the matter is that the areas in which I walked, I really saw little else apart from abandoned buildings. I even felt that downtown had an almost derelict feel to it in places, a lot of the larger buildings seemed empty. I might be wrong though. i'm sure there are some really nice, up-and-coming areas, but I just didn't see them.

[Xander202]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Nice picture touch and market scenes. For real.
If you ever came to Pairs, I could indicate a few suburbs that you would surely be interested in. Hurry up before they're torn down, and make sure to save a few hundred pounds for a new camera, no matter what your accent is.

I have actually been to some pretty scary areas of Paris. It is a city I would love to photograph the non-touristy areas of. I think Paris is like the opposite of detroit in the sense that everybody thinks Detroit is a dangerous, bombed-out building city, yet I am sure that there are great areas too. Whereas Paris everybody thinks of as a perfect, beautiful, pristine city, but behind the main city lies some very dangerous ghetto.

[tallboy66]

Originally Posted by Xander202

I have actually been to some pretty scary areas of Paris. It is a city I would love to photograph the non-touristy areas of. I think Paris is like the opposite of detroit in the sense that everybody thinks Detroit is a dangerous, bombed-out building city, yet I am sure that there are great areas too. Whereas Paris everybody thinks of as a perfect, beautiful, pristine city, but behind the main city lies some very dangerous ghetto.

..........

[tallboy66]

Originally Posted by Xander202

The sad truth of the matter is that the areas in which I walked, I really saw little else apart from abandoned buildings. I even felt that downtown had an almost derelict feel to it in places, a lot of the larger buildings seemed empty. I might be wrong though. i'm sure there are some really nice, up-and-coming areas, but I just didn't see them.

Downtown,New Center, Wayne State, Eastern market...are really great but in a city without mass transit except for the arterial buses, people drive everywhere.
Buildings have garages next,under them to or in them as well as the elevated walkways and yes even the people mover to transport people and not too many people walk outside of the CBD.
The up and coming are already in place the medical center and Wayne State have unfortunately used imminent domain to tear down occupied viable buildings in the name of growth while leaving adjacent areas hollow. I mean I know you need a cohesive campus and a medical center all spread out is inefficient but people live(d) there because it was/thriving and to chase them out to build sterile non-public buildings is...?

It would be great to see it filled to capacity from New Center-downtown and from Mexicantown to Belle Isle it has the space and infrastructure. Now dust off those old trolley and un-used rail lines for a commuter train.

Build it and they (might) come...(back).

[highriser1]

Nice pics. Nice camera.

[Kingofthehill]

swell thread. but when did ssp become some judgmental of what one chooses to photograph?!

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

swell thread. but when did ssp become some judgmental of what one chooses to photograph?!

When the subject is Detroit.

[Thundertubs]

Great thread, with some good camera work.

* * *

I have to say I hate these peanut gallery comments complaining about what the photographer did or didn't shoot, and how they missed this or that aspect of the city/neighborhood/whatever. I got the same stuff on my Detroit thread years ago. It puts a real drag on the forum and chases away good photographers. If you don't like what you see, post your own better stuff or just don't comment. I don't post nearly as often as I used to because the comments are so often just complaints. We've still got a great forum here, so lets be more supportive of each other. /rant

[Xander202]

Can people take their arguments to PM please. This is a photography thread, and I would prefer it if you could stick to what the thread was intended to be, and comment on the pictures. Thanks.