Detroit’s Beautiful Ruins?
By Matthew Weiss
I’ve never looked so fondly on Detroit, for some reason or
another. Part of it may be that I’ve never been there, or perhaps that the
Lions are located there. Perhaps also, I don’t appreciate Detroit because it
brought its own destruction in a way. But that’s an entirely different story
altogether. I believe that Witold Rybczynski has composed a wonderful photo
essay in defense of the rich history of Detroit, and how this history is being
not only neglected but misused by its own inhabitants. It’s maddening that
people could turn an historic theatre into a parking garage. But if any city
were to do it, I guess that would be Detroit. I’m always amazed at how homeless-friendly
that environment must be. I can’t imagine the homeless have to look far and
wide to find a roof with no inhabitants.
Looking at the relationships between Rybczynski’s photos and
captioning (in reference to McCloud’s book “Understanding Comics and the
metaphorical language of Susan Sontag), I can see an inter-dependent relationship.
I believe that Rybczynski’s photos can speak thousands of words about the city
of Detroit, but the fact remains that his wording is also equally important.
You can’t have only the pictures and receive the factual, historical data.
Likewise, you can’t fully appreciate the ruins of Detroit without a mental
image to bolster that thought to your brain. The images truly capture precisely
what is going on in this current economically driven world. They’ve claimed
their spot among other developing nation photos in proving to the rest of us just
how wonderful our own sheltered cities are. It’s quite right to say that Rybczynski’s
photo essay is a bold example of the aggressive and provocative nature of
picture taking, having all-but taking pictures of dead homeless in abandoned
warehouses.
