Let's Go To Detroit

Since I’m suffering from the January Blues, these pictures by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre perfectly suit my mood.  They document the shockingly rundown metropolis of Detroit, USA.

The City’s been ravaged by the end of the capitalist boom far more obviously than anywhere else in the Western World.  Although you imagine that the images are heightened in appearing more hauntingly beautiful due to a romantic notion of Detroit as a lost and abandoned city, this video (incongruously featuring Johnny Knoxville as narrator) shows that the faded grandeur of Detroit’s buildings is genuinely awe-inspiring.  The ruined glamour  is not singularly created by clever lighting and camera angles.

The images conjure up a feeling that you’ve happened upon a modern day Pompeii, or even a recently unearthed Atlantis.  Check out the lack of people in this picture – this is in the heart of a metropolis !  

Imagine Fifth Avenue, New York or Oxford Street, London being this empty at a peak time.

It’s all a little Gatsby-esque; the American dream versus that always lurking American nightmare.

 As a novel geek the pictures of the library particularly make my heart ache; all those unread books wasting away.

The epic faded grandeur of Detroit’s modern ruins both encapsulates the waste that is accumulated in modern society and the crumbling nature of capitalism in the Western World.  

Since I’m on a fashion vein with this blog, it came to my mind that these buildings would be the ideal location for a fashion shoot in an edgy magazine.  A squeamish thought due to the irreverence of displaying and advertising expensive clothing against depictions of truly depressing decay. The pictures are a lament of wastefulness, so using them as a backdrop to sell expensive clothing would be tantamount to blasphemy.  Plus the pictures are stunning enough with merely Detroit’s inanimate objects as subjects.

There is a twist (or an antithesis) to my argument however. 

If you actually watch the documentary I previously linked, you see that the residents of Detroit vehemently refute all the notions that I, along with The Guardian, have discussed.  

So maybe there's scope for that fashion shoot after all...

Here’s the link to all the pictures.

And here’s the Guardian article on the subject.

Compare it to the documentary and make up your own mind.