I'm Chained to the City

I can't help it. I've tried to escape Detroit but it is too much a part of my finger, the one that pushes the shutter button down. Click. I had this dream, more a fantasy, that I could make pictures without standing within Detroit city limits, but maybe I'm wrong. Sure, I like to photograph other things like cemeteries and non sequitur scenes, but I do perhaps feel most at home roaming the urban streets. A real battle rages on in my soul about shooting in Detroit. Yesterday, for example, I had the opportunity to get out early and get some shots but I hesitated, with quite a dialogue raging between the devil on one shoulder and my guardian angel on the other. Finally I succumbed to the evil one and headed into Detroit midday. There were quite a few people mulling about the streets and I felt much more inhibited, but I really wanted to find some interesting scenes. One was a house decaying from the back, a second story porch hanging by nails and splinters, no doubt.

"Hey you. Why are you taking pictures of my house?"

His voice was angry. I said nothing but gave him a friendly wave as I left the scene.

Detroit is changing. So many of the decimated properties have already been dismantled and left to the vegetation. So now the city blocks look more like a hockey player's mouth, with houses gone, just like teeth.

There is still plenty of decay. And struggle. I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like to live in the city. I have a roof over my head and I eat whenever I want, and sometimes, I work, whenever I can. Thanks to the economy, I have more free time. And less money for gas to roam...and repair the car after I've roamed too much.

I've been reviewing ALL my photos and I see sorting through the folders that my most creative times are when I have access to the city. Cemeteries in the autumn rank closely up near the top of my self-created list of 'best' things to shoot.

I said yesterday that I just can't return to the city with the regularity I once enjoyed, 3-4 times a week. Maybe once a month will suffice, keeping in my there is less to capture. Or maybe I just need to work a bit harder, hone those eyes of mine to look for something new. I must admit that in the earlier days I could easily find quite a few shots in any given session.

However, on my other shoulder, I keep hearing another voice that is instructing me to find something different on which to focus my eyes.