Greetings From Detroit.
Dead swan on Belle Isle.
Belle Isle is the best thing about Detroit, it recently got taken over by the State because the city was having trouble maintaining it. They run a Grand Prix there now and charge for admission. The heavy presence of State Troopers also puts a damper on things. It used to be a great place to see the city's vast collection of classic american cars, cruising on a Sunday Evening. We found this dead swan in the fall.
Shaved head.
Kids in Inkster.
Stopped by to visit a friend and caught these guys shooting a music video. They told me they were empty but you can see the rounds in the cartridge of the .22. Luckily, Kid in the middle is maintaining some discipline with his trigger finger.
Ram Grill.
Ram grill looking gnarly. Winters are brutal.
Collecting Water.
Despite being on one of the world's largest sources of fresh water - the Great Lakes. Detroit water is expensive, and occasionally the city will cut off residents' water supplies.
Scrapper's Cart.
First warm day in 2017 and riding to work I see this guy hauling a cart of scrapped aluminium siding.
Hamtramck
Hamtramck is a city within Detroit, with its own mayor and local government which hits the national news when a majority Muslim council is elected.
Ashley and a John.
Palmer Park remains home for Transgender women in the City, where they can occasionally be found strolling in-front of the building known as 'The Mirrors' around 6 and Woodward.
Marijuana Plant in a vacant lot.
Found someone's weed! I kept tabs on it throughout the summer, there were six plants, two ended up being male and were left behind.
House Fire.
In 2011, you could take the elevator up to 'Coach Insignia' at the top of the Renaissance center to watch the Peregrine falcons, they'd catch the wind and be able to hold their position just outside the panoramic window for a few minutes before stooping on an unlucky seagull or pigeon below. Here the setting sun caught the smoke from a housefire in Southwest Detroit.
Hacked Street Crossing.
The state recently passed legislation protecting the city from trip-and-fall lawsuits because of the condition of the side walks.
Painted house.
There's a of a career trajectory from Graffiti kid to an abstract painting practice in the fine art world. There's a few talented painters in Detroit who've come up this way and many more across the United States.
All the dead dogs I have found in Detroit.
Doing a lot of walking and cycling in the city you inevitably come across dead dogs. Some are strays that have starved or frozen to death and others were obviously dumped. The large one in the center has a bullet hole at the right eyebrow. The one at the back on the left was found in a 5 Gallon bucket and had a stiff electrical cord tied tightly around it's neck.
Execute cop killers, Dead Rottweiler.
There's nothing like a 'Fraternal Order of Police Officers' bumper stickers to make the right impression when you are getting pulled over. I imagine an 'Execute Cop Killers' bumper sticker does just as well. A dumped Rottweiler .
Liquor store pickles
Every depressed northern city relies on drugs and deep-fried food s to keep its people happy. In Northern England and Scotland it's alcohol and the chippy with brown sauce with pickled eggs, in Detroit it's weed and stuff like this in liquor stores. In the Coney Islands here they'll ask you 'shredded or squeeze' when referring to the type of cheese you want on your fries. Random building in the process of being demolished.
Pigeon Guano in a building
Most vacant buildings get hit pretty hard by scrappers, the 2007 recession coincided with increased prices for scrap metal, and in Detroit a cottage industry sprung up around scrapping metal from buildings. It's unusual to find one that's not been torn apart from the inside out. At the Packard Plant, scrappers using hand tools successfully de-constructed and entire floor. This one was untouched and pigeons had been living there for some time.
Skeleton Hoodie
Homelessness.
Sometimes come across homeless peoples' sleeping spots, typically with a neat array of shoes, tidyly folded blankets and a sugar supply, often Faygo, Detroit's eponymous 'pop' or a jar of peanut butter.
Inside an abandoned high school
As Detroit's population declined its Public School system suffered declining enrollment and a catastrophic deficit. Many schools, built with no-expense-spared during the boom years were left vacant and unsecured to be torn apart by scrapping and vandalism. Today privatized charter schools have replaced many public schools, educating the city's children for-profit, while the investment in the public school system, made over decades and represented by its amazing buildings is squandered.
Raccoons for sale.
Raccoons are a southern thing, many of the city's residents came from the South, to escape racism and find work in the factories, this southern influence permeates much of Detroit's rich culture.
Lorcin 9MM
Found this Lorcin 9mm in the trash filled basement of an abandoned home. The serial number had been scratched out. Lorcin Firearms, along with other 'Ring of Fire' manufacturers mass-produced cheap compact pistols dubbed 'Saturday Night Specials' because of their disposable and discrete characteristics. Incidentally Detroit Jazz legend Lyman Woodard featured one prominently on his album 'Saturday Night Special'. Lyman's son, Lyman Jr was my neighbor up until he overdosed in the winter of 2016.
Foreclosed Home
Wow . . as a former resident of Detroit, you brought back a lot of memories. I've been in a few of the places you photographed. You caught some of the raw emotion of the city splendidly. Thanks for sharing.
I still will go downtown from time to visit, but I rarely go back to the Michigan Ave and Livernois area where I lived. I'm hoping that the revitalization of the downtown area spreads out further, but new construction is drawn to where the money is . . and sadly, there isn't really any money to be made in the inner city.
I love Detroit though . . always will. It's where I grew up. I live in the Flint area now, and it's not much better. Definitely a different feel to the city, but much of the same blight is here as well.
The public perception is better, but it is still pretty bad. This is the first GIF that shows up on Giphy if you type in Detroit city
Awesome pictures but it's just sad how Detroit has become. How could this even happen in the USA?
Detroit isn't a bad place, I am confident I could take similar pictures in other cities, furthermore I don't view these pictures as particularly sad.
Detroit's industrial ruins are picturesque, like crumbling Rome in an 18th-century etching.
-P. J. O'Rourke-
I guess the pictures just fall into that category for me. I am sure that there still are beautiful places in Detroit. I am also sure that I can take some sad looking pics here in N.Y. aswell.....
Some seriously real photos. Thank you for putting this together and sharing it with us. It's always great to see something of substance that truly pulls you to place you are not currently at. Again, thank you! Your work reminds me a lot of LaToya Ruby Frazier. If you have not seen her work, take a look at "The Notion of Family."
Beautiful photo essay, thanks for sharing -- and welcome to Steemit.
Thanks. Looking forward to doing a bit more exploring on the platform. In particular I'm curious to see how other photographers use it to publish their work.
Amazing pictures! Nice read! Keep the great work up.
You just got a new fan. AWESOME pictures!! I could see you having an exhibit. My best friend stays in Detroit. I thought certain parts of Atlanta was rough....then I traveled to Detroit and shit got real!!! Sometimes at night, folks don't even stop at the red light for fear of a car jacking....smh..I couldnt believe one night I saw several people running the lights like it was normal.
Hey, thanks for your thoughtful response. Not sure if people run red-lights because they're afraid or because the roads are often so empty here, it makes more sense to simply roll through them and get to where you're headed. I know in my case it's the latter.
beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing.. so intimate and raw
Hey thanks, I'm excited to see how other talented photographers participate in Steem.
me too :)
Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected
thanks for sharing this great pictures . please upvote any post on my page and I will do same @abbeymelchizedek
Congratulations @maitland! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Award for the number of upvotes
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honnor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!
Very shocking:) upvote!
Here is my page https://steemit.com/photography/@larrsonek/sunset-with-my-girlfriend-in-wroclaw-24-06-2017#comments if you'll like it please upvote :>