Alright, so let me tell you about this Detroit “then and now” thing that kinda consumed me for a while. It wasn’t like I set out to become an expert or anything, it just sort of… happened. And the whole process was pretty eye-opening, to be honest.
It all started kinda randomly. I was digging through some old family boxes, you know, the kind that haven’t seen daylight in decades. And tucked away in one was this dusty old photo album. Belonged to my grandpa. He’d taken a trip to Detroit way back, must’ve been the 50s or early 60s. Man, those photos! Detroit looked like a different planet. Shiny cars, massive buildings all lit up, streets buzzing with people. It looked like the absolute center of the world.
That got me curious. Super curious. Because, you know, the Detroit you hear about these days… well, it’s a different story, mostly. So, I started digging. My “practice” wasn’t anything fancy. No grants or research teams, haha. It was mostly me, late at night, falling down internet rabbit holes. I looked up old postcards, newspaper archives, anything I could find that showed Detroit in its prime. It was fascinating, seeing all that ambition and industry.
My Little “Investigation”
Then, I started comparing. I’d find an old picture of a grand theater or a bustling street corner, and then I’d try to find what it looked like now. Sometimes I used Google Street View, other times I found recent photos from blogs or news articles. And wow. The contrast, in some places, was just brutal. You’d see these magnificent structures, architectural marvels, and now they’re just… empty shells. Windows boarded up, graffiti everywhere. It was pretty sobering stuff, not gonna lie.
I made a sort of mental (and sometimes actual, on my computer) scrapbook of these comparisons. My “records,” if you wanna call ’em that. It wasn’t very organized, just a jumble of then-and-now shots that struck me. Here’s some of the stuff that really stood out:
- The sheer scale of the decline in some areas. Whole neighborhoods that looked like they just got up and left.
- The beauty of the old architecture, even when it was decaying. You could just feel the history.
- But then, surprisingly, the pockets of new life. This was the “now” that started to really interest me.
Because it wasn’t all just ruin porn, you know? I started seeing stories about efforts to save old buildings. People investing, communities trying to rebuild. You’d see a photo of a completely derelict factory from ten years ago, and then a more recent one showing it turned into lofts or a cool new market. That part was actually pretty inspiring.
There was this one building, I think it was the old Michigan Central Station. Saw pictures of it from its glory days, then pictures where it looked like a warzone. Totally abandoned, a symbol of decay. Then, more recently, I found out Ford bought it and is pouring a ton of money into restoring it. That kind of thing. It’s a slow process, for sure, and super complex, but it’s happening.
So, my whole “practice” was basically just me, obsessively collecting these visual stories, trying to piece together the narrative of this city. From extreme highs to extreme lows, and now, maybe, a new chapter. It’s not a simple story of “it was great, now it’s bad.” It’s way more complicated. There’s decay, yeah, but there’s also resilience, and a whole lot of debate about what the future should look like.
Honestly, I didn’t set out to do a “project.” It was just personal curiosity sparked by some old photos. But it turned into this whole exploration. And looking at all those then-and-now images side-by-side really makes you think about how cities change, how fortunes turn, and how people keep trying to make things work. It’s a powerful visual, that’s for sure. Anyway, just thought I’d share how I stumbled into all that. It’s a story that sticks with you.
