The Michigan Theatre

The Michigan Theatre, closed 1978. Now the Michigan Theatre serves as a parking garage for a bland office complex attached to it.

Detroit Grafitti

The sun hit the concrete pretty hard so I framed up a simple shot that I hoped would show the layers of paint and the bold colors used by several grafitti artists.

"Do not show my company's name if you publish."

In a city and state plagued by high unemployment (25% in Detroit), this picture shows one business that has plenty of work on their hands in Detroit. The man spraying down the outside of this small church works for a company that cleans graffiti. He asked that any pictures I publish do not include the name of the company he works for because as he put it, "some of the artists take their work pretty seriously" and would not appreciate him removing it. He said that historical socieities and other organizations hire them to clean buildings around the city. That was right before he asked me not to take pictures that showed the company name on his jacket.

Waiting for Recovery?

... been waiting for more than 40 years

Tear drops

This is the photo that I did not think much of when I framed it and shot it. I only took this one shot and at the time did not even realize the "tears of litter" that I now appreciate so much. I printed and framed this picture. It was the hidden treasure of my seven hours in Detroit. This is one of the shots that I am grateful I had the eye to see it even if at that very moment I did not appreciate the shot.

For me, this is one of the shots that inspires me. I feel like I worked for it since I got out of my car and walked on to the property and talked to the men cleaning graffiti. This was not visible from the street and in the open area, the "eye" did not look as unuque as when I got the chance to frame it with my camera.

Finding this picture was like putting on your winter coat for the first time of the season and finding a $20 bill in the pocket. A nice surprise.

Detroit

While I love the adventure of shooting new scenes, there is nothing good about seeing abandoned homes, hotels and former office buildings. Most of the shots begin to look the same and I often wait for a subject to enter my pictures. The old beat up car was a nice touch, but I needed the man getting in to help this picture stand out from the dozens of other abandoned buildings. I did not feel safe in the area so I stayed in my car to take the picture. My impression of the people in Detroit left me feeling like the outsider I was. I was respectful of people and mostly avoided taking pictures with people in them. One church I stopped by had a group of young men standing outside of it and it would have been a great picture, but I was smart enough to hold off. Sometimes I just ask permission, but in that particular case I do not think that would have been a good idea.

How can they re-build this once glorious city?

No Sleeping

Jesus loves you, but he prefers that you not sleep on the steps.

Theatre turned Parking Garage

The Michigan Theatre has its own story but the gist of it is that it closed in 1978 after serving as a grand movie house. Now it is a parking garage with room for 20-30 cars, but there were only 4 or 5 parked there. The old Michigan Theatre was on my list of 10 places to visit in Detroit( I only got to 5 or 6 as it turns out), but I had no idea how to get inside. A nice man on a smoking break showed me the way in past security and I spent about an hour shooting in there and imagining what it must have been like in its prime.

The woman photgraphed here was also on a smoke break. The adjoining office building was mostly empty and depressing. I wandered around in there for 20-30 minutes just being curious. I noticed that I did not see many wokring people on my visit and when I did, they were on smoke breaks or driving.

Detroit

A recent day trip to Detroit resulted in some interesting content. The morning haze lifted shortly after I shot this picture with Ford Field in the background. Doing Detroit in seven hours opened my eyes to a city rich in history. I plan to get back there soon.