I keep coming back to Detroit. It’s bizarre how photogenic the downfall of America’s industrial powerhouse can be.
However there’s an eerie and unwanted sense of responsibility to be felt when looking through these before & after photographs of Detroit taken in 1973 and 2010 by the same photographer, Dave Jordano. I could browse through endless Flickr albums of ruinous Detroit on a shiny iPad, but at what point are we going to consider that we have all played a part in its decay? And closer to home, does anyone sense that this might be happening to us and to our future generations in our own towns, right underneath our noses?
Yes, everything is destined to pass, but isn’t there something to learn in its passing?
Waiting Room, Michigan Central RR Depot, Detroit, 1973-2010Corner of Woodward and State St., Detroit, 1973-2010Great Hall, Michigan Central RR Depot, Detroit, 1973-2010Old Union Depot, Corner of Fort and Third St., Detroit, 1973-20108000 Oakland Ave., Detroit, 1973-20103935 Russell St., Detroit, 1973-2010Lower Concourse, Michigan Central RR Depot, Detroit, 1973-2010Stage, Vanity Ballroom, 1024 Newport, Detroit, 1973-2010Farwell Building, 1249 Griswold St., Detroit, 1973-2010John Bagley Memorial, Campus Martius, Detroit, 1973-20108000 Oakland Ave., Detroit, 1973-2010Crowley’s Department Store, Farmer St., Detroit, 1973-2010Corner of Alfred and Brush St., Detroit, 1973-2010Clayton Hotel, Corner of Clifford St. and Fisher Freeway, Detroit, 1973-2010
There is however, a little bit of hope in some of Jordana’s before & after photographs….
Corner of Randolph, Congress and Cadillac Square,1705 6th St., Corktown, Detroit, 1973-20101656 Bagley Ave., Corktown, Detroit, 1973-2010
