We were discussing the whole ruin porn thing in our staff meeting the other day, asking what else there is to say about the pro and con, the aesthetic attractions, the realities and distortions in the imagery of the city. Especially as that imagery is projected beyond the metro area.
The online journal Salon recently weighed in with the thoughts of DIA curator Nancy Barr and a slide show of Detroit Revealed: Photographs 2000-2010, her project that opens Oct. 16.
From the Salon interview with Barr:
Photographs of Detroit from the last several years — seen for the most part on the Internet via photo sharing sites and online magazines and blogs (but also in a few printed publications) — have concentrated on the city's empty buildings and streets, its lifelessness and vacancy. It is a very singular picture of Detroit. I knew there was so much more to the city; there are 700,000 people living here, and they have voices, faces and meaningful as well as challenging life experiences. So the idea for the exhibition came, in part, out of a desire to give visibility to our lives and our culture here.
Here’s more about the show from the DIA website:
From its neighborhoods, factories and vast urban prairies, the exhibition includes more than 50 photographs by selected artists including Michelle Andonian, Carlos Diaz, Scott Hocking, Andrew Moore and Corine Vermeulen. Video work by Dawoud Bey and Ari Marcopoulos are featured.
