Many years ago when I was a student in Ann Arbor, a Polish photographer friend came to visit from Montreal. As we were discussing plans for her visit, I mentioned that we could go into Detroit. As I explained that Detroit was really run down and essentially slums, she became excited and exclaimed, “Oh we can take peectures in the slums!”
Never did I imagine then that I would one day be spending a summer (and potentially longer) living in the slums of Detroit. And now I’m the one excited about taking “peectures” here. Several weeks ago T took me on a bicycle tour of the city. I stopped periodically to snap shots of littered street corners and burned out buildings. T pleaded with me to take pictures of other things so that my people didn’t get the wrong impression of the city. He’s drawn to pictures of beautiful architecture, which Detroit does have. I’m drawn to color and grit. In the end, my meager genesis of a collection of Detroit photos is a little bit of everything, which is essentially what Detroit is.
Bird on a Bare Branch 