Just about a year ago this month I took my first trip to Detroit to explore it’s ruins. It was something I had always wanted to do but I was afraid to do it on my own. Some friends of mine Eric Tillman, Alanna St.Laurent, and Jesse Welter started a Meetup group called Motor City Photograpy Workshops http://www.meetup.com/Motor-City-Photo-Workshops/ They offer workshops that take you into the many abandoned buildings in Detroit. After my first workshop I was hooked and am pretty much addicted to photographing abandoned buildings now. Each trip is a new adventure and I am learning so much about the history of this city I love. I am over and over again astonished at what is left behind in these buildings to rot and decay. Gym floors that could have been salvaged to floor your house. Beautiful decorative tilework that anyone would be proud to have in their home. Then there are the books, musical instruments, beautiful oak woodwork, desks, etc. All of which is just destroyed when the buildings are torn down. I can’t believe that there aren’t salvage companies to save these beautiful items. During one trip we took there was a fellow from London with us, he now lives here in Michigan. He commented that he was going home for a visit eo England. When I asked him if he was going to explore abandoned buildings when he got home, he looked at me in astonishment and said “We don’t have buildings like these at home in England, every building that lose’s it’s occupant is picked up refurbished and reopened by someone else, we just don’t have the problem that you have here”. If only the people in Detroit had the same mindset our city would look much different. However this does seems to be a problem across the whole of the United States and not just in Detroit.
Cindy Lindow Photography 