The abandoned houses project began innocently enough roughly ten years ago. I actually began photographing abandonment in Detroit in the mid 90’s as a creative outlet, and as a way of satisfying my curiosity with the state of my home town. I had always found it to be amazing, depressing, and perplexing that a once great city could find itself in such great distress, all the while surrounded by such affluence.
There are some beautiful houses here. Sad.
Memo to myself: remove Detroit from list of vacation destinations.
Not unlike any other ghost town up and down history.
People go where the opportunities are for work. When industries self-destruct due to incompetent management and administration and lack of foresight, those opportunities dry up–along with the empty houses left behind.
Land and houses have value only when they’re occupied with productive people.
From the about page: “In these neighborhoods I encountered concerned citizens, packs of wild dogs, 20 foot high piles of toilets, and houses with the facades torn off, filled with garbage.”
I think he missed an opportunity here. We’ve all seen abandoned houses before, but a 20 foot high pile of toilets?! Where’s the photo of that?