For years in the music industry, I traveled at the very least once a month.  With the DETROIT:DEFINITION project and several others including a few new book projects, I am doing the same, some decades later and not as efficiently.  So, it seemed time to post the recent update from October 2016.

Since January 2011, I have made 12 visits to Detroit with a 13th one upcoming in just a few weeks for the opening at MOCAD of THE ARCHITECTURAL IMAGINATION, the creative project that was presented last year as the theme of the US Pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale/Architecture. The exhibit presented new ideas for Detroit and a photograph of mine was selected to be one of twenty printed on postcards given out to the world to represent a current visual perspective of the city.  Those postcards will also be prominently displayed and available at MOCAD.

Born in Detroit but leaving for the California beach at the age of one, I remain fascinated - while freezing - by the winter landscape and there is a part of Detroit that shows itself best then.  In addition to the MOCAD opening, I look forward to exploring further in the winter of Detroit.

My Fall2016 update:  http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=013a28d9f024038bd399086bb&id=398bff9e89&e=[UNIQID]

Since the update, my second French exposition of the in-progress Detroit project was held in Paris during Paris Photo Week and the US election.  Detroit was very much in the news then and now for it represents a microcosm of what is happening around our country.

The sixth anniversary of the beginning of the DETROIT:DEFINITION project fell on my birthday this past week, Inauguration Day.  I started on this date in January 2011 with my own birth home in the Northwest.  It was a significant beginning for my now "family by house," graciously took me in and introduced me to a Detroit that was often in the news when touching on the devastation BUT in realty introduced me to a community, the entire block and many others like them, who had held it together for their families and others and are now key players and examples of the strength that has brought this city back.  How lucky I was ... and am today.  It is within the neighborhoods of Detroit and its residents and business there that the city's power resides.

Below: Scenes from the Avenue of Fashion/Livernois: April Anderson's Good Cakes & Bakes, Eric Vaughn of Eric's I've Been Framed and  Michael Owen mural.

As a photographic project, the actual photography is winding down.  One wants to go on and my relationship with Detroit definitely will, but in terms of my own work, fine art with a touch of documentary, there has to be an end.  Setting a limit on a specific period of change in a city that is so rapidly evolving forces one to interpret exactly that: time that becomes its own chapter in the history of the movement that is Detroit.

Throughout, however, capturing Detroit has been a challenge and a learning curve; requiring understanding of its beautiful buildings, 20th century industrial position and historic accomplishments. It required face to face interaction, even from my own less "on-the-street" approach, to meet and friend so many gracious residents from a highly diverse social, economic and  multi-racial/cultural strata.  It takes time and realization that the city will define me even as I worked to define my birth city for myself. 

Our new American administration is addicted to undercutting the good work and reality of cities such as Detroit and its residents, stating that our country is a disaster.  Notwithstanding, Detroit has actively demonstrated exactly the opposite: a too often maligned place that instead, with only a bit of exploration, represents the best of our county: thoughtful activism and resistance, perseverance and positive change.  Detroit is filled with citizens, public services and business willing to listen to each other and work together.  Even in the past few divisive years of the US, a Republican governor and a progressive Democratic mayor have worked successfully together in accomplishing much for the city's revival.  Active long-time residents along with newcomers have created forward-looking  and successful programs for city growth including issues of sustainability, diversity; social and business-advancement and job opportunity.

I am more than lucky and grateful to be so often in Detroit at a time when so much of this progress is happening and results are already evident.  Detroit is now a blueprint for America itself.

Here are some recent views:

 

Two Additional visits to Detroit - Now Five Years(!) and Recent News

Since the last post in October 2015, two more visits to Detroit have filled in many blanks in terms of my quest to define my birth city, not only for me.

My latest visit in January 2016 was celebratory not only for my birthday but also for my 10th visit there in five years for my DETROIT:DEFINITION photographic project. It has been my luck to have been in Detroit at this moment.

From the day the project commenced - my January birthday in 2011 - Detroit has changed rapidly and dramatically.

In local, national and international news in that first January, Detroit was about decades-long devastation, unemployment, population reduction and ruin. And so it seemed, on that very first visit and cold, wintry impression.

That said, what had not then and still has not changed: the warmth, persistence and determination of its residents to forge ahead and work for change.  In this sixth year now, that change is happening quickly and Detroit's presence to the world is not about despondence but about growth, community and enterprise, developing now not only in the downtown area but expanding out to its metropolitan suburbs.  It is a story continually evolving and one that continues to intrigue me.

For the visit, among many other subjects, I wanted to capture a sense of the early industrial history of the city and that history seemed best approached in the midst of a Detroit winter.

It has been such a busy year+ that not even all of my images are yet downloaded but here is one from that series.

 

There will be more to come, not only from this traditional industrial view but from new and exciting enterprises, but in the interim there is GREAT NEWS: At this year's prestigious 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale, the US Pavillion is featuring Detroit and as an adjunct to the proposals by amazing architects for the project, 20 photographs representing Detroit have also been chosen in competition and one of them is mine!

My Venice Architecture Biennale participation announcement (with explanation of the image as well) can be viewed at

http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=013a28d9f024038bd399086bb&id=2161cb32f3

I am also more than delighted that many of the newspapers and other media announcing this photographic competition award have chosen my exhibition image as their lead photo, including the front page announcement from the Detroit Free Press! 

My thanks always to this city for allowing me so to learn so much about it.  The project continues as I work not only to capture the remaining of my "to do" list but to formulate the book/exhibition project.

Back, Back Again, Going Again...

From the look of the blog, it would seem I have not been thinking of Detroit since I posted before my March 2015 trip there, visit #7.

To the contrary, Detroit has been totally on my mind since then for I had been offered an amazing opportunity to exhibit this in-progress project in Europe in the fall in Lille in France's northwest in connection with a major festival: Lille3000/Renaissance, an examination of five international cities in the midst of positive change.  DETROIT:DEFINITION at the Maison de la Photographie in Lille opened on 24 September and is about to close this coming weekend.  I was privileged to share this large and wonderful exhibition space with Guillaume Rivière, a well-known French photojournalist who photographed Detroit also this past March for the French magazine, IDEAT.

With a slew of new images from seven visits to France (now eight!) and a greater focus on what I wanted to capture in Detroit, the exhibition - almost 50 prints of mine!-  was terrrific, the opening beautifully planned and filled with so many French and others totally fascinated by what is happening in Detroit, a symbol for so many of how a city first decimated by the loss of a major industry - like Lille as it happens with the loss of their major textile industry - can gather itself together and restart its soul.

And while my French could use some work, I found myself giving interviews in French, writing and translating and/or working with translators on my exhibition essays all about this city founded by the French in 1701 by General Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac.  The exercise certainly sharpened and slowed down what I had to say and focused me better on this longterm project, bringing me a personal, eye-opening perspective on a grand American city that has been a poster child for centuries now: of America's strength in people and industry for the first half of the 20th century; for the decline of that American dream in the second half and, now well into the 21st, an international model of revival and community collaboration, not yet finished but certainly on its way.

My exhibition catalog with French and English text is available for online viewing at issuu.com.

At the vernissage (opening), a softly played video with the music of Sixto Rodriguez (aka "Rodriguez") set the theme for the exhibition which was, ultimately, about the people of this substantive city I am learning so much about.  Installation shots follow.

My great thanks to the Maison de la Photographie and the city of Lille for this opportunity.  I believe I will soon have some further good news about exhibiting in France.

Soon to follow: reports and visuals from my last two visits to Detroit and where the city feels now but for the moment, here is my exhibition.  I look forward to soon bringing it back to the States.

Returning...and catching up...

As I prepare to return to Detroit this next week, I realize the blog has been ignored lately and it seems normal for I often post more when I am actually in Detroit, capturing current observations. 

This past six months, especially late 2014 and early winter 2015 became busy - an exhibition of work from my REVISIT.RENEW.NEW series at the SarahLeePROJECTS booth at PhotoLA and the multitude of art fairs that happen in Southern California in January and February.

At PhotoLA, I did bring three additional large prints from the DETROIT:DEFINITION project as well, all from my photography shoot in November of Wayne State's new Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building between Woodward and Cass, a terrific example of repurposing and expansion.  The block had been formerly inhabited by the Daigleish Cadillac Building, originally designed by Albert Kahn in 1927 to house the Walter J. Bemb Buick-Pontiac dealership. 

The architects, Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp., designed an inspiring building full of glass and light while saving the original showroom facade on Cass.  Outside of the new addition, the reflective glass mirrors a fast-changing neighborhood and soon, the M1-Rail will appear in these windows as well.

In the interior, the third floor retained the original roof of what was originally the indoor auto storage area, complete with driving ramp; the latter now replaced by those gorgeous multi-paned south-facing three story windows and open lobby.

 I am returning to Detroit the week of 16 March and look forward to seeing the construction progress for the building is set to open soon.

And in fact, development and re-development as well as a search for Detroit's architectural wonders seemed to be the theme of this past November exploration as I caught snaps of an amazing church, toured a Minuro Yamasaki building, and grabbed some outside snaps at Mies van der Rohe's Lafayette Park.

I had a chance as well to capture some images from the return of the Livernois Avenue of Fashion - great shops, restaurant - the 1917 American Bistro ! - and well worth exploring.
I wandered north of 7 Mile but I hear that just south it is coming back as well.

A sample of my work from previous visits as well as these past two in Fall of 2014 is incorporated into my newest "Scouting Update," a continually revised booklet sampling some of the work from these Detroit visits.  It can be seen online - DETROIT:DEFINTION/SCOUTING UPDATE20110-02014 - at issuu.com

One goes to art fairs to show, to buy, to covet and to find inspiration - and this year, to exhibit as mentioned at PhotoLA -  and during this winter's moment in Los Angeles last January/February, I wandered from opening to opening (Art ContemporaryLA), a book fair (Printed Matter LA Book Fair), a major photographer's talk (Simon Norfolk), listening to Bach's St. Matthews Passion sung by the Master Chorale at Disney Hall and then off to the Paramount Ranch/Art LA fair in the Malibu Mountains, an old movie ranch where I rode as a child with my father through the western town sets.

All of it is helping me narrow my focus about Detroit as I see how other artists - we all do learn from and are inspired by others - take their own personal stories, their own curiosity and form it into narratives for others.  The DETROIT:DEFINITION project, originating originally with my own curiosity to see the city of my birth,  is captivating me, changing me and allowing discovery not only of this evolving city but of myself as well and society as well.

I look forward to being there again.

Here are recent articles and books I have been reading recently on the city:
When You've Had Detroit  by Rollo Romig
A Detroit Anthology, Ed. Anna Clark.  (So far I've read Marsha Music's beautiful essay, "The Kidnapped Children of Detroit")
thanks for the view, mr. mies: lafayette park detroit

Forging Ahead

With resolution of the bankruptcy filings on the November day I flew into Detroit for my second visit of 2014, among the many concerns of Detroit that are now being positively addressed and resolved, the arts are going ahead.

Just announced: the grand Detroit Institute of Arts has reached its pledge amount promised as part of the "Grand Bargain" that was achieved in Detroit's bankruptcy negotiations.   This is a stunning result exceeding earlier expectations and it should be noted that donations to achieve this funding goal - which aids as well the pension and investment partners in the Bargain - were not only from those within Michigan but also without, demonstrating the seriousness taken in terms of preserving this elegant American institution.

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/2015/01/05/dia-grand-bargain-payments/21306891/

Below: A snap of a portion of the magnificent DIA hall painted by Diego Rivera and financed, surprisingly since it is so anti-corporate and pro-labor, by one of the icons of the auto industry, Edsel Ford.

September In Detroit, Part V: Followup: Do Something for Detroit

"September in Detroit" is a multi-part post, part of the continuing series of musings on Detroit as I sit here, absorbing my own experience in the city combined with others' tales.  This particular 4-part series is best read from Part I below and then upward, if you can make it through...  I call it a "musing" as I attempt to make sense of what I see and experience each visit, part of my in-progress photo exhibition/book exploration of my birth city.


Posted by Crain's Detroit Business as a followup to the Detroit Homecoming is "The Detroit Perspectus: 5 Ways to Support Detroit," a list of links and resources to "Do Something" for Detroit.  Perfect as a starting point not only for we expats but for others interested in working with this beleagured but rising-again city.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140917/NEWS/140919730/the-detroit-prospectus-5-ways-to-support-detroit

September in Detroit, Part IV Saturday 20 September

"September in Detroit" is a multi-part post, part of the continuing series of musings on Detroit as I sit here, absorbing my own experience in the city combined with others' tales.  This particular 4-part series is best read from Part I below and then upward, if you can make it through...  I call it a "musing" as I attempt to make sense of what I see and experience each visit, part of my in-progress photo exhibition/book exploration of my birth city.

 

 

At Grand Circus Park with view of Broderick Tower

I am spending one additional day in Detroit to see friends and wander a bit more, hoping to return for a more intensive photo shoot in October.  

I breakfasted with my "family by house," the Faust family of siblings whose parents had owned my family home in the Northwest and with whom I try to visit each time I am in the city.  Mary Hammons Faust, Veronica Faust and Maurice Faust represent for me the regular people of Detroit, knowledgeable about their home city, experiencing the ups and downs of everyday Detroit, ready to discuss it all.  And discuss we do, especially since I am brimful of information and enthusiasm after the past three days.

Of particular interest: neighborhood.  I mention one of the civic neighborhood initiatives already in practice: providing lawnmowers to residents who promise to care for their properties. There are families raised in the decades of decay who have watched their neighborhoods disintegrate before their eyes.  Unused to the concept of order and what it means not only for neighborhood beautification but for safety and land value, they have forgotten home pride.  

The simple gift of a lawnmower is bringing order back but, as Maurice points out, it requires that residents be trained to take care of their property, something to be undertaken by the block as a whole to ensure that this type of neighborhood pride and resultant enhancement takes hold.  A simple idea that can be suggested coming down from civic leaders on high but that also requires encouragement and guides rising up from each block. 

A great block club example is the previously noted Henry Jolly Memorial Block Club, where Veronica Faust is on the Board.  In 2013 I photographed another terrific block in the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood where the boards of what abandoned houses remained were brightly painted by residents with the words of W.E.B. DuBois, an abandoned lot had become a community vegetable garden and park, and all populated houses and yards were inviting and immaculate. While the streets  around this Wabash block were sad examples of the decay too prevalent in the city, this block shone and I would like to return soon to see what's happening today. 

 

Similarly and as a part of the requirements for renting a home there, the Penrose Art House and Garden development for low income families requires not only home maintenance but has also established a neighborhood agricultural center and art garden for community meetings and childhood afterschool education and activities, all beautifully designed and founded by Detroit friends, landscape architects (note Lafayette Park downtown by the Book Cadillac) Beth Hagenbach and Ken Weikel.  I've spoken about this before.

 

Readying for pumpkins 2013

The concept of a block club or a neighborhood community mission has been around for a long time - I am on the Board of a similar resident dues-paying organization out here in my California canyon - and it is there in Detroit (http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/05/plan_would_let_detroit_neighbo.html) but it needs to be reinforced and expanded.  Wherever I travel in the city, the individual residents are eager to improve where they are.  It just takes a bit of effort to organize and do so.

And right on point today: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20141006/NEWS01/141009858/duggan-in-bankruptcy-court-weve-recruited-top-corporate-team-to-run  "...  The mayor described the city’s progress rebuilding services including streetlights and buses, as well as police and fire protection. One focus has been on persuading residents to begin repairing their own blighted neighborhoods."

By coincidence my young friend David Selsky, a fellow photographer and son of great friends from my music industry days, contacted me as he was about to attend a conference in Detroit, asking for thoughts about what to see there.  Our conferences were both ending Friday and we arranged to tour a bit on Saturday.

A challenge: what does one show a city about which one is also still just learning?  I am past just showing the devastation, definitely not the full story of Detroit today, tourist or otherwise. David already knew about the Packard plant, the Heidelberg project and several other known spots so we arranged to meet in Eastern Market, where I wanted to visit with Megan O'Connell and Leon Johnson whom I met in 2013 at Salt & Cedar Press, their amazing letterpress, art, conversation and farm to table food event venue.

Our great luck: Leon's intensely thoughtful exhibition, Ark: Field  Dressings just opened at the press.  This year Leon was awarded three highly regarded fellowships: a Kresge Arts Fellow and two residencies as the 2014 Martha Daniel Newell Distinguished Scholar at Georgia College and most recently, a Bemis Foundation Fellow.  Our greater luck: to see Leon and Megan's son, Leander, hard at work packing to take Salt & Cedar Press to the NY Book Fair as well as his own zines.  It is always so invigorating to see this creative family investing in and living a Detroit that is here.  

Knowing David would be here another day and wandering on his own and that my time was limited to getting out of the city for my afternoon flight, David and I went took the "little tour," i.e., not the grand ruin but the small recent history, all of which provides a tale of Detroit today and is, thematically for this post, about neighborhood.  We drove through the beauty of Boston Edison, an leafy elegant upper middle class residential area where signs of blight are few but still are there as evidenced by glimpses of tacked on wood at windows and unmowed lawns, hopefully lessening; Highland Park, a separate city surrounded by Detroit and the site of Ford's historic factory and where, finally, the fire department building has been rebuilt although its memory as an, ironically, burned out hulk standing in sad solidarity with the police and civic hall buildings in 2011were some of the saddest memories of my first 2011 visit, but also where one could see examples of what I wrote above: one block filled with trees and children playing in the street, the next where houses stand isolated from each other by vacant lots. Finally, we drove northwest to my "own" Pinehurst block so that I could take my each-visit photograph of my Pinehurst family home and David could see real Detroit living in the suburbs today. 

Ending this visit with my home photograph seems right.  As one Detroit Homecoming participant commented when I gave him my business card with my winter photograph of my birth home, "This is just right for Detroit, for this is what the promise of it was: a modest home."

So much of this visit seemed directed to trying to bring this back.