Rolleiflex 2.8C - Detroit in Color

[joho35mm]

Here are a few more from the same tour around Michigan that I went on with my friend. Here we are in Detroit - we only had a few hours to rush through the city before he had to get on a plane back to California, so we went to the Fisher Building and the famous (or infamous) abandoned Michigan Central Station. I had a single roll of 3-year-old Fujicolor 160 in the Rollei. The MCS was particularly eerie; the wind was very strong and cold that day (you can see this in the photo of my friend taking his own picture), and we stood there listening to it screaming through the hundreds of broken windows in the station. I don't think I've ever had the feeling of a building literally "looming" over me in a threatening way, so this really sent shivers down my spine.

Fisher Building -











Michigan Central Station -

[LarryD]

Omm you are a great Artist. The Grass in the foreground is something... Almost like I have seen it before.. along with the kid and the Camera..

[martolod]

Detroit is a fascinating subject.dangerous, but fascinating

[brazile]

Those are really quite wonderful, individually and collectively. I find this kind of architectural detail fascinating, and while a certain amount of decrepitude is an interesting and useful part of a view of a place, some folks treat it almost as "urban decay porn" rather than fitting it into an overall picture. Mixing in your friend's literal and figurative struggle to shoot was inspired as well. Thanks for sharing...

Robert

[joho35mm]

Thanks, guys!

Larry - my guess is that someone planted the grass (reeds?) in the foreground to make the area in front of the terminal more photogenic. Literally! Moments before my friend and I started taking pictures, there was a professional photographer there with a young couple kneeling in the grass for what appeared to be engagement photos. He gave us what seemed like a dirty look for walking into his background. Either that, or he was frustrated with the strong wind; the woman's hair was flying all over the place!

Robert - I know exactly what you mean by the "urban decay porn" or "ruin porn." Those words are tossed around a lot by people in my history program, especially people who study Detroit and the history of architecture - and usually used to describe non-historians who don't care for the backgrounds of the decaying buildings or neighborhoods they photograph or explore. It's easy for uninformed photographers to treat buildings like this simply as "source material" for these photos of decay, without realizing or understanding that they're now only a shade of the grand, beautiful structures they were originally intended to be. For me at least, I'd much rather take pictures of a Michigan Central Station restored to its original grandeur (much like the Fisher Building) than crawl through paint chips and rotting concrete to get "ruin porn;" there's something kind of sad about the latter approach to these buildings.

[br1078lum]

It's certainly interesting to see the contrast between caring, and uncaring when it comes to buildings.  That Fuji 160 did great in all the artificial light to bring out the beauty of the Fisher building.  And the Rollei helps in capturing the detail of the facade of the MCS building.  Looks like it's just a matter of time before it starts to fall down on it's own, and that's a shame for such a grand old building.  But it is just one of the places in the Detroit area's industrial past that have been, or will be, lost to time.  But we get to see them through your great photos, Joseph.  Thanks.

PF

[shadowfox]

Excellent ones, Joseph.
I wished I knew what I know now about photography back when I was in college, like you, that was the time when I had the opportunity to travel around the country.

In some ways, thank you for allowing me to relive my college days through your travels and pictures.

[Jim Evans]

These are really incredible.   You captured the sense of abandonment and decay very well.

I was in downtown Detroit back in September.   I went to a Tigers game with my two brother in laws and we then drove out through some really depressing parts of downtown.  It's unreal how many buidlings are just sitting empty in decay.

[LarryD]

Sigh. These are wonderful......

[Julio1fer]

Very nice results from that Rolleiflex. My favorite is the last one, the blurred building in the background and the contrast with the yellow grass in the foreground.  The Fisher building is awesome. What a splendid era!

[P C Headland]

Very nice, and a great action shot of your friend.

It is sad to see the decay of what were once magnificent buildings.  BTW, there was a program not so long ago on one of the history channels on a small groupd of photographers who went around the world photographing inside abandoned buildings.  It was fascinating to see all the different "takes" - what each one saw.  There is an abandoned hospital building here in Wellington (one of very few abandoned buildings), and the surprising thing is that you can organise photo trips through it.  A guy at work is trying to set up a visit in the not too far distant future.