Happy Holidays!

© Brian Widdis

An Assignment

Hugh Grannum/Detroit Free Press

I'm going to try my best not to repeat myself every time a cliche filled story about Detroit appears. From here on out, I'll just post links as I become aware of them. And with all the focus on the Big 3 and Detroit, I'm sure more are on the way. The latest is from the Times in London.

I have an assignment for all journalists coming to Detroit to report on the state of the Big 3 - have a look at the Driving Detroit series that the Detroit Free Press put together last year. It was a months long, in depth look at the city, so I realize that most agencies can't commit to something like the scale of this, but the tone is right. It's not all bombed out post apocalypse wasteland. There is life here. As Bill McGraw says, "it's worse than you think, but better too."

Where Are the People?

Sean Hemmerle

Yet another tour of The Remains of Detroit...... This installment from Time magazine. After seeing quite a few variations on this, I have one question - where are the people? If this photo essay and ones like it were your only view of Detroit, you'd think no one actually lived in the city. Sheesh.

By the way, I do realize it may seem just a tad hypocritical considering I just had a series of photos published that share the same tone. (See previous post) Us Detroiters are just a little touchy. You'll give us that much, right? That is all.

Part of the Problem

© Brian Widdis

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph Detroit for The Guardian newspaper in London. The story is about the auto industry, of course, and how the Big 3's declining market share and constant cutbacks are affecting folks here. This is difficult work for me because I don't like to produce photos of Detroit that reinforce the negative images that people have. The dying rust belt city, looks like a war zone, etc. Lord knows there are enough photographs out there already to prove this. And unfortunately, there is much truth in this. The amount of decay in this city is visually overwhelming. And while this particular mythology of Detroit is true, it's only part of the whole story. But, and this is part that sucks, in the context of the news of the day, it's the only story that anyone is interested in hearing about.

See the story here and the slideshow here.