Zen Photography

It should be obvious to anybody viewing my photostream that I have returned to the streets of Detroit. But with mixed feelings. For one thing, as I keep mentioning, the city is much cleaner, cosmetically, than when I started shooting there over six years ago. The devastation has been covered up with boards, and many buildings have been ripped down. I gave up last autumn for three reasons: 1) the cosmetic clean-up, 2) feeling overwhelmed with the situation in the city, and 3) too many other people flitting around the city armed with cameras.

My cameras went back on the shelf, that part of my existence ceased.

There are still bad sections that I'm exploring and documenting. And the city seems to be erupting with danger again. Shootings, arson, etc. I have been lucky so far not to be on the scene, or an integral part of, that.

Funny story...the other day I spotted to very attractive Asian women standing in front of a church in a rather bad part of the city. I thought they might be tourists and did not realize that they might be endangering themselves by walking around. I drove around the neighborhood a bit, as I usually do, exploring streets and a while later saw them walking together down a side street, heading into an area that is not only unsafe but that has largely been blocked off and closed down for construction. I pulled up to them and told them they might not realize how dangerous it was for them to be strolling down the street as they were. They politely thanked me and continued on.

Either they were really tourists determined to see the sights, or, as it dawned on me later, prostitutes trolling ass. I'll never know. But I do regret that I did not take their photo.

I'm looking to expand my photo horizons, and find something new to explore. I'm also trying to return to that state of mind I used to have of no-thought photography, just look and shoot and check it out when I got home. That's one main reason I can't take others with me as talking and chitter-chatter just destroy that mood.

Boarded Up

I guess it was just a matter of time before I started dipping back into Detroit for pictures. I've been nibbling on the corners, making a few short treks through certain areas. And I can definitely report now that the city has changed. The wreckage has largely been cleared and while 'clean up' is not appropriate, cover-up might. Those smashed windows and dangling door frames are now shielded by sheets of plywood. The grime is gone. Many homes are gone, ripped down, replaced by fields of grass. Or better yet, weeds.

I don't know how the city survives.

It looks better, but that means the photo ops are not as good for me. I'd love to see the city bounce back and become respectable again.

Last week I went to visit one area, was stopped in the road (no traffic behind me) and a pick-up truck with two men slowly pulled up next to me. The passenger shot me the evil eye, and they hung back near me while the light was red. It changed, and they moved, a mere crawl. The passenger throw some paper out of the window and shot me another look. I was in the right lane and as we passed under the light, I took a turn and left the area.

I wonder, if I lived in that area, how I would like strangers coming and gawking at my hood. Since Detroit is largely populated by blacks, my presence as a honky stands out loud and clear. There are whites in Detroit and I think they live in relative peace, but then they don't have a camera up to their eye, taking in the scenery.

For excitement, there was a massive fire in Highland Park. I was miles away and saw pillowing black smoke pumping up into the air. It seemed like forever getting there, with all the stop lights, which I think are timed to the 'annoying' setting. Drive a few blocks. Stop. Wait. Start. Stop. Wait. Running reds in abandoned areas (and often in not so abandoned areas) is pretty common in the city. I guess the police will often look the other way as they have more important matters to attended to.

The fire was huge and lasted hours. I learned later a man died, jumping from the smoke. And it was not exactly an accidental fire. Police report that one of the non-official residents (squatters) had tossed some sort of fire bomb after a dispute.

Then later a major auto accident on the street. I heard the car wrap around a telephone pole. The front end was demolished and it looked like the driver 'should' have died, but the air bag saved him and he was walking around. The debris fanned out across the pavement. I did not take any shots of it because traffic was snarled and I just didn't see anything I wanted to capture.

I had a good outing yesterday but the pickings were slim and I don't expect that it will be 'business as usual' for me in Detroit.

In Limbo

More equipment problems. The Canon is going back to the factory this week for repairs not performed on its last factory-warranty visit just weeks ago.

And at a time where I'm really feeling an itchy trigger finger.

Shoot!

However, I do have back-up and can still shoot sans the Canon.

But WHAT to shoot! Of course I can't ignore my love of Detroit. However, the city has changed - drastically. Sure, there is still some devastation to be viewed, but quite a bit of that has been cleaned up, if only cosmetically. Store fronts are boarded up, covering broken plate glass windows. The same with houses. Many questionably sound buildings have been leveled. And life is still very hard in the city abandoned by the auto industry.

I haven't explored every neighborhood in the city. I'm sure I could find interesting subject matter if I explored. The troubled economy impacts me heavily, and gas is a major expense in my ventures. And repairs. Tires. Suspension. It's not cheap prowling the streets of Detroit.

However, the major deterrent for me is the popularity of urban photography now. I see carloads of folks, cameras in hand, tooling around the city. A major fire will bring them out like cockroaches after the lights are turned off. Or vultures, circling over head. I experienced that last summer when I saw black smoke rising over the horizon in the city. I was perhaps five miles away and by the time I got there, there was a crowd of camera folk.

Seeing so many others doing what I've been doing for six-seven years really diminishes my desire to go out shooting Detroit.

I sometimes wonder how 'useful' my photos are, showing sides of the city that the media skims over. That was my motivational reason these past years, to expose.

My nature photography doesn't attract much interest on Flickr. Either I have the wrong crowd looking, or it's just not that interesting. It's interesting to me, though, and for that reason I will continue to shoot, and post a few. However, I don't think of Flickr as MY site, but rather a gathering place for we who are drawn into the world of photography.

Another detriment, but one that I will not allow to restrict me, is the heavy emphasis on surveillance these days, ever since that day in September eight-and-a-half years ago that totally changed the course of my country. I wonder if people see it that way, how so many things changed that day. And one that is close to home for me, is our loss of personal freedom. I had my own encounter with the law this past summer when I was reported as engaged in 'suspicious activity' that resulted in lengthy interviews on the phone. And I was asked to send in the photos I had taken. Abandoned warehouses in Detroit are hardly 'rich targets' for terrorists, I'd say. Unfortunately for me, there was also a power station within a block, which held absolutely no interest for me.

So now I'm probably on government watch lists. The saddest thing is I did not even get a decent photo for all my later-developing trouble.

I think people are really fooling themselves about what's REALLY going on. Enough said.

Taking on the Big Guy

The other day, while walking through woods in the area, I saw a magnificent long wing span hawk gliding over the tree tops, probably looking for some lunch. And near the pond where I was standing, was a rather noisy red-winged blackbird, yacking away as blackbirds do. I guess the blackbird spotted the circling hawk and took off. I thought it did not want to be lunch. Instead of dashing off into the woods, that blackbird ascended in the direction of the hawk and, to my amazement, started attacking it. All told I think that blackbird pecked at the hawk a good dozen times, and the hawk showed no signs of mixing it up with that little blackbird.

I say it's time to really go after our friends on Wall Street and toss some of them in jail. I hope they're not too big to serve time.