This morning I got up nice and early to start shooting here in Detroit. It was very chilly and I came across this fire escape covered in ice. I loved the texture and feel if the scene but the images I was taking just didn’t do much for me. Then I got out the fisheye lens and I suddenly loved the image. I hope you like it too!
This could be a dangerous way out of a burning building. Luckily, the building was already burned out so there was no danger.
What was happening in the U.S. when this penny was made?
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 168,903,031
Life expectancy: 69.7 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6
US GDP (1998 dollars): $438 billion
Federal spending: $70.64 billion
Federal debt: $272.7 billion
Consumer Price Index: 27.2
Unemployment: 4.4%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Denver is filled with little treasures like this. This cemetery is in a very industrial part of town. There are so many symbols of death in this photograph, I couldn’t resist shooting it. From the tombstones to the barren trees to the still factory in the background, death prevails.
Yesterday my brother and I shot our first day in Detroit. Although I knew that times were bad in Detroit, I really had no idea how bad it really was. We found our selves saying “Oh my God” over and over. It looks like a war zone in so many places. There isn’t going to be any shortage of failed business, buildings and family homes to shoot.
This shot shows an industrial building with my brother, Joshua on the right hand side of the image. We’ll be returning to Detroit later this week and weekend to look for more imagery. Although it’s very sad to see so much failure, I look forward to taking the photos.
The Anthony Wayne Bridge, a 3,215-foot suspension bridge crossing the Maumee River, has been a staple of Toledo’s skyline for more than 70 years. It is locally known as the “High-Level Bridge.” This bridge is an iconic image in Toledo.
This shot was taken today at sunset with my brother Joshua. We’ve been shooting together all weekend and plan to do the same next weekend.
Buildings like this are scattered throughout the Toledo, Oh area. Once a great industrial city filled with manufacturers of glass, autos, bearings and other objects is now filled with abandoned shells slowly decaying. In other parts of the country, buildings like this one are coveted as urban Loft projects, but in Toledo they are just a reminder of better times.
Part of the reason I chose to come to the rust belt to shoot a photography project is that I love the aesthetic of decay. This image of a vw bug in Erie, Co caught my eye for its different stages of corrosion.
As I traveled along I-25 north of Denver, I realized the landscape was spattered with these oil drills. I’m always looking for situations where there’s a juxtaposition of nature and man. Although we’re currently completely dependent on oil for transportation, energy and plastics. I hope that one day these oil drills are replaced with renewable technologies. Until then, they make for a great composition.
I passed this scene the other day in Denver and I was drawn to the juxtaposition of the religious and industrial icons. Both have been worshiped at different times of history by different groups of people. As I start to shoot the fall of our once great industrial sector, I will continue to look for these type of symbolic images.
