Jeff Ball

Heidelberg Street, a Diamond in the Ruff in Detroit

The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art project in Detroit, Michigan. It was created in 1986 by artist Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey (“Grandpa Sam”) as an outdoor art environment in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood on the city’s east side, just north of the city’s historically African-American Black Bottom area. The Heidelberg Project is, in part, a political protest, as Tyree Guyton’s childhood neighborhood began to deteriorate after the 1967 riots. Following his stint in the Army, Tyree Guyton described coming back to Heidelberg Street. He was astonished to see that the surrounding neighborhood looked as if “a bomb went off”. At first, the project consisted of his painting a series of houses on Detroit’s Heidelberg Street with bright dots of many colors, and attaching salvaged items to the houses. It was a constantly evolving work that transformed a hard-core inner-city neighborhood where people were afraid to walk, even in daytime, into one in which neighbors took pride and where visitors were many and welcomed. Tyree Guyton worked on The Heidelberg Project every day with the children on the block. He and director Jenenne Whitfield gave lectures and workshops on it around the country. Their main goal was to develop The Heidelberg Project into the city’s first indoor and outdoor museum, complete with an artists’ colony, creative art center, community garden, amphitheater, and more. The effect of the Heidelberg Project is displayed through the development of Heidelberg Street. At the other end of the street, there are crumbling houses with lawns covered with waist-high weeds, rubble and rubbish, with no people in sight. [Wikipedia} When I came across Heidelburg St. I knew I would have a connection. I love photographing the details of scenes like this. It’s like a treasure hunt to find imagery using color, composition and contrast. I also love this colorful few blocks in the middle of a very depressed area of Detroit.

Chicago Sunset

This photo of a lakefront view of downtown Chicago was taken during my rust belt tour earlier this year. Although most of the trip was focused on finding the beauty in the decayed and neglected industries, we would take moments like this one to see the beauty in the modern city as well. This is a high dynamic range (HDR) shot using three bracketed shots combined into one image.

Almost a lost opportunity

This sunset photo was taken just outside of Pittsburgh earlier this year. My brother Josh and I had just finished a weekend of shooting urban exploration photographs in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and were on our way back to Toledo, Oh for Easter. We had waited for the sunset in the city on one of the many bridges in the city until we just couldn’t take the wind anymore. We felt like we had shot some nice sunset shots until we realized that the best was yet to come. Instead of being upset over the lost opportunity, we pulled the car over and took these shots.

Reclaim

Copyright Jeff Ball 2010

As my brother, Joshua and I explored forgotten buildings throughout the rust belt, we noticed a relationship between the man made structures and nature. As the wind, rain and sun work on breaking down many of these old buildings, plant life begins to invade. Often the plants will grow on the roof tops or inside the building where the roof has failed. The roots can crack foundations and shift walls creating even more opportunities for mother nature to do her work.

This image was taken at sunset on our first day in Chicago. We spent much of the day searching for imagery with little luck. Our determination and faith that we would find something lead us to this complex of buildings and silos just off Highway 55.  I was able to capture this image using 3 bracketed shots and a fisheye lens borrowed from Joshua.