Detroit is my hometown, but I’ve been gone from there for over three decades. These photographs are my reaction to all the negative press that Detroit has had to endure over the past few years. I wanted to see for myself what everyone was talking about, and like everyone else I was initially drawn to the same subjects that other photographers were interested in; the crumbling factory interiors, the empty lots and burned out houses that consume a third of the city, and the massive abandoned commercial infrastructure. It took me a week of shooting this kind of subject matter to make me realize that I was contributing nothing to a subject that most everyone already knew much about, especially those who had been living there for years.
To counter this, I began looking at the various neighborhoods within the city and the people who live within them. This human condition, while troubled, struggling, and coping with the harsh reality of living in a post-industrial city that has fallen on the hardest of times, does thrive, and demonstrates that Detroit is not the city of death and decay that everyone was reporting in the media, but one that shows signs of human activity and movement. However, not withstanding the recent press about Detroit’s efforts to rebound from the depths of ruin, which is in all ways promising, my focus
continues to rest on the current conditions that affect many of the poor and economically challenged people whose fate will be drawn out in the ensuing months and years to come as Detroit continues to redefine and shape a new identity for its future.
Whatever that outcome may be, whether for better or worse, I’ve found that most Detroiter’s wear their pride for the city they live in much like an honored badge of courage, defying all odds, openly admitting that if you can survive here, you can survive just about anywhere.
My hope is that this work will convey in many ways that Detroit is a microcosm of several communities, built on perseverance, clinging to the vanished ideals of an urban oasis that once hailed itself as one of the most beautiful and prosperous cities in America, at one time a model city for all others to follow.
This personal project is not about what’s been destroyed, but more importantly about what’s been left behind and those who are coping with it.
Dave Jordano received a BFA in photography from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit in 1974. He received the Curator’s Choice Award in the Houston Center for Photography’s 2004 membership exhibition. In both 2006 and 2008 he was a top 20 finalists in Photolucida’s “Critical Mass”. In 2009 his work on Black storefront churches was exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, accompanied by his book, “Articles of Faith”, published by the Center for American Places. Jordano has exhibited internationally and his work is held in several public museums, and private collections, most notably The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His current project, “Detroit Unbroken Down”, documents the cultural and societal identity of his hometown Detroit. Jordano is represented by the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA, and the Stieglitz 19 Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
