I’m very proud to have two of my “Detroit...

I’m very proud to have two of my “Detroit Portraits” published in this amazing Detroit themed issue of Boat Magazine …which is based out of London.

Boat Magazine is an ambitious biannual publication that bills itself as an “antidote to lazy journalism.”

Indeed it is just that. Their premier issue delved into the forgotten city of Sarajevo…and now with their second issue…Detroit.

So yeah, I’d say they like to tackle some complicated subject matter…I’m so pleased that editor Davey Spens invited me to contribute for many reasons.

One reason is contained in this brief excerpt from an essay written by Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides that opens this Detroit issue of Boat. It’s entitled “Against Ruin Porn”:

“The reason I agreed to contribute these brief thoughts about Detroit for Boat Magazine has to do with the correctness of the editors’ attitude. This issue of Boat Magazine seeks to take a stand against ruin porn. It is everything a ghoulish filmmaker wouldn’t understand. Because I, too, have committed the sin of aestheticizing Detroit’s demise, I’m well aware of the seduction of this posture and, therefore, all the more eager to condemn it. That’s what this issue of Boat Magazine is about.” - Jeffrey Eugenides

I, too, have in my own way taken a stand this year against ruin porn in Detroit. It’s not so much that the decay and ruins of Detroit shouldn’t be documented, they should, but I can’t help but feel at this point that the continuous onslaught of this type of ruin photography is just a bit of rubbernecking at a car accident…it’s gawking and gratuitous.

So I ask you, are we visually (and intellectually) learning anything from these photographs or from the photographers? What actually happened to Detroit? Or, more importantly to me, what may happen next?

So to that end, I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in the coming months documenting Detroit’s future; its people.

I’ll be sharing more about this endeavor with you all very soon.