Review
My Review:
This book had an unsettling effect on me. All those ruins, and they really are ruins, relics of a grander time. All the life, gone. Vergara commented on it himself at one point. There are no people in his photographs. He'd start to take a picture and try to refocus to capture a person, and the person would be gone. There are whole parts of Detroit where there are no people, though. Nothing but rotting floors, rusting pipes, faded signs, fallen roofs. Abandoned. Burnt. Abused. And graffiti over all. In some landscapes, that's the only color, the graffiti. It's a stark sight and he's been photographing it for a long time. Each year catching the changes. Some slow, gradual. Some as quick as a flash of hot fire. No one to stop it. No one to care.
No, that's not true. There are people who care. The African American population in Detroit fights back as it can. However, the money in Detroit doesn't belong to them. And Packards aren't made in Detroit anymore. No jobs. No money. No power. No progress. Slow progress. The revelation of the condition of their city has embarrassed some of the people of Detroit and things are ever so slowly changing. It's going to take time. It's going to take a whole lot of money. And it's going to take a whole lot of caring. I hope Mr. Vergara keeps dropping into Detroit with his camera to take pictures.
This book is being published on August 28, 2016. I was provided a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review by University of Michigan Regional and NetGalley. I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions stated are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley
This book had an unsettling effect on me. All those ruins, and they really are ruins, relics of a grander time. All the life, gone. Vergara commented on it himself at one point. There are no people in his photographs. He'd start to take a picture and try to refocus to capture a person, and the person would be gone. There are whole parts of Detroit where there are no people, though. Nothing but rotting floors, rusting pipes, faded signs, fallen roofs. Abandoned. Burnt. Abused. And graffiti over all. In some landscapes, that's the only color, the graffiti. It's a stark sight and he's been photographing it for a long time. Each year catching the changes. Some slow, gradual. Some as quick as a flash of hot fire. No one to stop it. No one to care.
No, that's not true. There are people who care. The African American population in Detroit fights back as it can. However, the money in Detroit doesn't belong to them. And Packards aren't made in Detroit anymore. No jobs. No money. No power. No progress. Slow progress. The revelation of the condition of their city has embarrassed some of the people of Detroit and things are ever so slowly changing. It's going to take time. It's going to take a whole lot of money. And it's going to take a whole lot of caring. I hope Mr. Vergara keeps dropping into Detroit with his camera to take pictures.
This book is being published on August 28, 2016. I was provided a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review by University of Michigan Regional and NetGalley. I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions stated are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley
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