Detroit and ruin porn
Raise your hand if you're tired of seeing this picture. Photo by senor miller
The WSJ had a story last weekend about some Detroit urban explorers who pushed a dump truck from the fourth floor of the 50-year-old ruins of the Detroit Packard plant and made a video out of it. Then the Free Press followed the story, pairing it with an earlier column by Mark W. Smith, that asked: “Are we obsessed with ruin porn?”
NPR’s On the Media had covered the issue last month, quoting Thomas Morton from Vice magazine, who noted that media stories often use photos of Michigan Central Station (6,900 photos on Flickr), which closed in the 1980s, and the Packard plant, which closed in the ’50s (4,300 photos on Flickr), to illustrate Detroit’s current economic troubles:
“It’s disingenuous, it’s like going to the base of Roosevelt Island and taking pictures of the old mental hospital from the ’50s to underscore some point about Obamacare.”
In fact, the folks at Dyspathy and their readers made a drinking game out of Assignment Detroit, Time Magazine’s yearlong project chronicling — what else? — the Detroit Depression. (Rule #2: “For every mention of landmarks demolished or soon to be demolished, drink. If the landmark is the Michigan Central Station, drink a boxcar.”)
Here are some greatest hits in the ruin porn genre:
- Time Magazine: Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline
- Flickr set by DetroitDerek and photographers using the tag detroitdecay
- The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit photo site
- Slate: Exploring Detroit’s Beautiful Ruins
- Jalopnik: The feral factories of Detroit
Please, send your own favorites.
I’m kind of torn on this subject.
I hate that the pictures of Michigan Central Station are now a symbol of Detroit. As you said, these buildings were abandoned a long time ago.
On the other hand, I’m drawn to these buildings. And as someone that is interested in photography and Detroit history, I want to experience them as they are now. I’ve been meaning to feature them on my blog and I would love to go inside MCS & explore the Packard plant.
Does that make me a hypocrite? Probably.
I absolutely know what you mean about the power of the images. It’s just that now that I’ve moved to DC, the ruin is all anyone knows about Detroit. I went to a neighborhood gathering a couple of weeks ago, and everyone mentioned the Time cover story and the ruin photos. One guy actually walked away after I argued that, you know, there are new, vibrant parts of the city, two new sports stadiums, etc. The desolation is just too easy a story.
Take heart! There is a budding wave of entrepreneurs and lovers of these buildings growing up. I have been “UrbExing”, or exploring, some of these buildings with photographers and friends. There is a true love and passion for the city of Detroit that burns within the hearts of my generation. The destruction and ruin isn’t photographed (by this generation) to bring shame to Detroit – it’s to try to show the beauty of what once was, and what we believe will in our lifetimes be again. I know many many people who are disgusted by the idea of demolishing MCS. They aren’t upset because they like the neglected relic. They’re upset because the truly see the potential in that revolutionary building and want to be a part of restoring it, and the city, to and beyond it’s former glory. They want to see Michigan Central Station stand as not the symbol of the city’s downfall, but as the new symbol of Detroit’s comeback – one built upon alternative energy, big ideas, and a a passion for our home. There is hope. There is want. We need to unite and take action.
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