Detroit: Don't Cry For Us, Cry For Them

In honor of my beloved hometown I have decided to dig into my archive of Detroit images for this post.  Detroit has long been the holy grail of "ruin porn" photography and the recent news of the city filing for bankruptcy will undoubtedly spur that on.  My feeling is that Detroiters look upon these seductive color photographs of abandoned theaters and churches with a weary eye.  Those images are beautiful, and horrifying, but they are taken from an outsider perspective and ultimately, they are NOT Detroit!  These photos, taken from the early 90's through the present, are not exactly rosy either.  What they are though, is pictures of the people of Detroit! 

 

Rodriguez, circa 1999, just before he discovered that he was a rock star.

 

 Tearing down Tiger Stadium

JOSHUA TREE

A few months ago I posted some images from a Southwest road trip that took me through the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree.  While at Joshua Tree I shot a few rolls of film and decided to have it cross processed from negatives to positives.  Cross processing your film is always a gamble but I was hoping to convey how surreal the landscape at Joshua Tree feels when you are in it.  As I half expected, the exposure was way off but the colors also shifted pretty democratically.  Here are the results - after a bit of tweaking in Lightroom.

 Go explore!

  

Student Work: The Year in Review

Well gang, another year of spectacular student work is in the books.  Here is but a sampling of what students in the photography program at Anne Arundel Community College produced this year.  Each year AACC photography students seem to raise the level of sophistication of their work and that was especially true this year.  A big congratulations to everyone that is graduating or transferring to the big leagues. I wish you luck!  I hope to see the rest of you back in the fall.  Enjoy the summer!

 Becca McClanahan

Lucas English

Whitney Albrecht

Kris Cruspero

Tess Geissler

MJ Neuberger

This pic and the one below by Kayleigh Truban

Color Photography

Megan Cara

Alex Ray

Tess Geissler

Gabe Turrubiartes

Amy Packett

Tony Rankin

 

 This pic and the one below by Becca McClanahan

Digital Photography

This AMAZING image and the two below are by Mackenzie Pendry

 

Eric Cooper

Lizl Hartlein

A few typologies...

Steve Bolton

Eric Cooper

Taylor Watkins

PhotoJournalism

A couple of images from a photo essay on Black Friday, by Natalie Pautsch. Natalie is off to MICA this Fall so look out Baltimore! 

 More images by Natalie...

 

A take on political stereotypes by Phoebe McCarthy.  Phoebe is also off to MICA in the fall. 

 Iggy on the moon

 These two pics, also by Phoebe McCarthy, are from a documentary on a rehab center in Baltimore that uses jogging as a method for getting clean.

And last but not least, the Postcards From Home project by Katina McDonald.

Have a beautiful summer everyone!