Design Observer's Places site is all about Detroit right now. (Cool!) Earlier this week we told you about Jerry Herron's article which touched upon ruin porn and historical perspectives. Yesterday's feature is a photo essay by Dave Jordano which shows Detroit at two moments in time through paired shots. Jordano was a student of photography at the College for Creative Studies in his native Detroit in the early 1970s. Recently he has been revising his student photographs and rephotographing the sites of the originals. Author Aaron Rothman writes,
That these pairs of then-and-now images are by the same photographer implicates us in the changes they depict: this has happened — is still happening — in our lifetimes. Jordano’s Detroit is a living city that is part of our reality. It is a peopled city, even in the images of vacant spaces, and we understand its transformation as the result of decisions made by people — not as an artifact that results from the disembodied force of historical entropy. Our thought? Man that Compuware World Headquarters at Campus Martius is a real tragedy and Hudson’s Department Store was really done wrong in this replacement demolition. Detroit's good buildings are the old ones, so let's please redevelop more of them and forget about new construction. Hope over to D.O. for all 22 images in the series.
· Detroit Re-Photography [Design Observer Places]
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