Posted August 19, 200915 yr I took a trip to Detroit a few weeks ago with Sherman and Gordon Bombay. We did our usual type of exploration, visiting a few of the more infamous parts of Detroit. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip: By the way, I am working on a series of posts on my blog, Local Architecture, that correspond to these photos and will continue on, eventually leading into a thesis. You can follow it on Facebook if this kind of thing interests you. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Click Here for the all my photos from Detroit. Sherman and Ronny should have some excellent photos to post around here soon, too, so keep an eye out for those! Edit: by Robert Pence to fix typo in topic title
August 19, 200915 yr Yay! I'm glad you made the drive from NYC to come here. What a great trip that was...
August 19, 200915 yr Nice! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
August 19, 200915 yr http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something-something-detroit-994.php?page=1
August 19, 200915 yr It's sad to see that. It's as if mankind has been eliminated and the world is in an elevated state of deterioration. The movie "I Am Hero" comes to mind. https://www.instagram.com/cle_and_beyond/https://www.instagram.com/jbkaufer/
August 19, 200915 yr http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something-something-detroit-994.php?page=1 I've Already seen it, and discussed it elsewhere. Unless you have something to add?
August 19, 200915 yr i can add a little something tangential. i know the honchos from vice magazine. i like them personally, but that magazine and its mocking tone reflects the go-go nineties era it was born in and it should've folded after 9/11. i guess its good at least that they left in when the urban farmer in that article turned it back on them. fall of the empire tourism, ain't it grand? :|
August 19, 200915 yr ^The article speaks the truth, though, about the monotonous, semi-exploitative narrative frame that out-of-town journos slap around Detroit. That said, I am not implying that the photographer(s) in this thread are attempting to tell the whole story of Detroit; it's obviously a photo thread, and as such, presents many aesthetically-pleasing images. Good work, Ram23 and friends. Seriously.
August 19, 200915 yr yeah, they are toning down their act here and i liked the article, but it still has the haughty reek of vice bestowing their hipster approval on other people's misery aka abandoned detroit. hey everybody look, but dont you go there, we're so cool we took the hit and dewd its not cool for you to do it. eh, i guess that has more to do with the rest of the magazine its in than this article by itself. i keep forgetting playboy had good articles too - heh!
August 19, 200915 yr ^^I think it says "go there," but don't go looking for the things you've read about in the in-flight magazine, which is a pretty sound itinerary for Detroit. The whole place is an underground operation. The only way to really enjoy yourself is to abandon your expectations.
August 19, 200915 yr ^ The article, to me, came off as being a classic "we were hipsters before you were" piece. It was just pointless bickering. But thanks kingfish for clearing that up; I'm not a journalist writing about Detroit, I'm an architecture student studying potential sites that can contribute to a thesis. A lot of beautiful architecture in Detroit is endangered, and I don't see why anyone there would be upset about people bringing attention to it, no matter how they go about it - good journalism or bad. The whole "bad journalism" thing is done for anyways, in my opinion. Blogs (or what the established journalism scene calls "bad journalism") are taking over in terms of spreading information. Again, thanks for the compliments on the photos. Architecture that has failed (become abandoned) is my interest, nothing more..
August 19, 200915 yr Yeah, I'm not for sure I took much out of the article but it is a different perspective and an interesting read. Zach does it for the architectural sense; I do it for the historical perspective; Ronny does it for the stories that can be told. I don't think necessarily that going to Detroit is now the "cool" thing to do; it was the "cool" thing to do decades ago, but that things change. I only started going to Detroit once I moved to Cincinnati because it was more conveniently located, and that I could find little history for many of the locations given. Plus, we've whored Cincinnati out. The Queen has been sealed for the most part.
August 19, 200915 yr koow it was made pretty clear cameras and questions about ruins are not particularly welcome. unless of course vice does it because there is a hipster approved buck to be made off it. http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something-something-detroit-994.php?page=1 An interesting perspective. But fall of an empire? Seriously? I know the country has its problems but that just seems a little over dramatic. hah i know, but usually evrything in vice is overly dramatic -- i guess the even handed tone of that one just caught me a little off guard! :-o otoh dont sleep on india, china, the rooshins, the sneaky brits, the crafty japanese, the monetarily unified euroland, up and comers like brazil, and israel and canada are always cranky about watching over our natural resources for us, etc...! :laugh:
August 19, 200915 yr I see you hit up the old dock warehouse. I've been really wanting to check out the roof of that place for sometime. I hate to just park anywhere nearby since I would be ridiculously visible. #14. Building on the left, wide open. I'm going to have to make a special trip for this one. Some really nice photos you got here, hopefully you continue to come back and get some more!
August 19, 200915 yr Did you see the comments made on the Vice site? Many of them expressed what you said mrnyc -- that disapproving of 'tourists' coming into the D is pretty much knocking what Vice does all too often :D :D
August 19, 200915 yr koow it was made pretty clear cameras and questions about ruins are not particularly welcome. unless of course vice does it because there is a hipster approved buck to be made off it. Thanks for putting words in my mouth and all, but you got me all wrong on this. Once more, slow: Come to Detroit. Just don't expect to see the sh!t you read about it the by embedded NY Times bloggers, and don't pretend you're telling me the REAL STORY OF DETROIT by showing me the same tired cliches. The guys here (Sherman, Ram23, NorthAndre) have the right idea: photograph to record, catalog, memorialize. The other guys, they're shooting to exploit. Thoughtful photographers/explorers/visitors (like Sherman/Ram23/NorthAndre) should be wary of the profiteers. That's the point of the Vibe article in my estimation (and my reading comprehension). If that wasn't, it should've been.
August 19, 200915 yr koow it was made pretty clear cameras and questions about ruins are not particularly welcome. unless of course vice does it because there is a hipster approved buck to be made off it. Thanks for putting words in my mouth and all, but you got me all wrong on this. Once more, slow: Come to Detroit. Just don't expect to see the sh!t you read about it the by embedded NY Times bloggers, and don't pretend you're telling me the REAL STORY OF DETROIT by showing me the same tired cliches. The guys here (Sherman, Ram23, NorthAndre) have the right idea: photograph to record, catalog, memorialize. The other guys, they're shooting to exploit. Thoughtful photographers/explorers/visitors (like Sherman/Ram23/NorthAndre) should be wary of the profiteers. That's the point of the Vibe article in my estimation (and my reading comprehension). If that wasn't, it should've been. huh? umm, slow yourself vwhere did i put words in your mouth? and i have been talking about vice mag and the vice article, i dk the vibe one. they meaning vice are out to make a buck on stuff like this, even when they are "schooling" us about possible exploitation. this is vice mags m.o. i'm not referring to people like uo'ers who photograph and explore for the (nonprofit) reasons you mentioned. and i thought that was clear already or that shermans reply made it clear...guess not. well, thats imperfect internets communications for ya!
August 20, 200915 yr Again, my interpretation of the Vice article is that they're calling out the national media for playing up the same old cliches of Detroit; I didn't sense Vice had a horse in the race (okay, indirectly). Was it a snarky piece? Absolutely. But there was a hearty kernal of truth to it. The saddest thing of all, and I think the Vice article mentioned this, is that when you show a complicated/vibrant image of Detroit, the national audience yawns. Show the hulking abandoned structure Detroit, and readers snap it up. Maybe we all sense something profound in the abandonment (6 million photo majors can't be wrong), and to be sure, I spent my fair share of time in those buildings back in college (Abandoned funeral parlor? Creepy awesome!), but the real story of Detroit is not the buildings; it's how we got here, and hopefully, how we'll get back. God bless, and good night.
August 20, 200915 yr yes and unfortunately that idealism is not the story of vice magazine. faux profundity and insights like that wrapped over exploitation. my god koow, you might want to aquaint yourself with the rest of 'ol vice and a few back issues for a moment or two and you will see what i meant. any kernals of truth it offers are just a slick hook. better yet take my advice and don't bother!
August 20, 200915 yr Great stuff. I'm okay with losing all of it, as long as the Book and Broderick towers are saved.
August 20, 200915 yr yes and unfortunately that idealism is not the story of vice magazine. faux profundity and insights like that wrapped over exploitation. my god koow, you might want to aquaint yourself with the rest of 'ol vice and a few back issues for a moment or two and you will see what i meant. any kernals of truth it offers are just a slick hook. better yet take my advice and don't bother! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Trust me on this: Detroit is the stopped clock capital of the world.
August 28, 200915 yr I made a second blog posting about the buildings in the photos above, a bit of analysis, and a mention of the Vice article... http://zfein.blogspot.com/2009/08/detroit-ii-architecture.html
September 12, 200915 yr 1) That article is hilarious..."The flip side is a simultaneous influx of reporters who don’t want anything to do with the city but feel compelled by the times to get a Detroit story under their belts, like it’s the journalistic version of cutting a grunge record." Hilarious. 2) Tremendous photographs, you guys must have been like kids in a candy shop. 3) I'm going to repeat this anyways: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
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