Detroit - A diary entry

"Recently, the Congress of the United States passed an act against burning of the American flag. Stiff penalties for burning the flag. And those same people who passed the act in a flurry of patroitic speeches were actively burning up the country for which the flag stands...These people are completely confused between the symbolic world and the real world." - Alan Watts

I’m just going to walk and bike around Detroit and take pictures. That’s it.

As I began to edit about a year’s worth of photos, I realized that taking these pictures was my way of taking notes—my way of learning where I am. Without knowing it, I was going out and shooting the things that I was feeling or thinking about. This may seem obvious, but it was a weird, surprising moment like when you see yourself on video, “Huh, that’s how I look? That's how I act?”.

I think sometimes we want our words, our work, conversations to be new or interpretive. I don’t think that’s what these photographs are. I think they are familiar and clear. In many ways, these photos are not meant to represent Detroit.

I’m still finding my voice when it comes to this style of streetwalking. It’s like the moment you first start to join the conversation about serious issues when you’re at a dinner party versus not saying anything or waiting for the topic to change. I guess you join the conversation when you feel like you’re ready.

For me, taking photos can be like listening to someone as they say a fact you’ve heard before, but the way they say it and present it to you, it somehow speaks to you like it didn’t before. That’s part of what Detroit has been saying and showing to me. When you see certain things in new ways, small as they may be, it can be enough to change how you view the world.