This is actually a quite great account of the media and how it deals with Detroit. "The city's second-most-overused blight shot is of the mile-long ruins of the Packard Auto Plant in East Detroit. 'This is the visiting reporters' favorite thing to see,' [photographer] James [Griffioen] said. 'The people all come here to shoot the story of the auto industry and they love this shot because they can be like, 'See that? That's where they made the cars,' and then forget to add the footnote that the plant's been closed since 1956.'" Oh man.
Great stuff. Of course, is this surprising? How many shots of screaming assholes have we seen at town halls verses shots of the (very many more) civil conversations?
"Lazy Journalists Love Pictures of Abandoned Stuff." That goes weithout saying. Just look at all those pictures of Topper Mortimer.
Great article. My favourite image from Detroit is that huge old church or tabernacle that's been converted into an indoor parking lot. I love that kind of re-interpretation of a building's purpose, no matter how sacrilegious. They used it in 8 Mile, too.
And this: "...staring at the mic clipped to my shirt like it was a severed baby’s clit."
My own experiences with 'ruin porn' in Detroit include a Grade 10 Urban Geography field trip, over from waspy London, Ontario. We spent a lot of time in the John Hughes-esque suburbs like Bloomfield Hills, and the Cranbrook Institute (gorgeous!), but we did see an awful lot of squalor and blight too.
Mr Angelov was actually a pretty brave old dude for taking us there.
Fun aside: One of Sasha Grey's most popular porn movies is named "Ruined". It sadly, does not take place in Flint, MI.
This guy bothers me. I don't care if a building was abandoned in 1956. If you had a vibrant city with a thriving economy then someone would either redevelop the land, or it would be bought up by the city turned into park space. Simple as that.
I heart the D, but not this dude.