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The Ruins Of Detroit (2010)

by Yves Marchand(Favorite Author)

4.62 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

3869300426 (ISBN13: 9783869300429)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Steidl

review 1: A very good book, mostly pictures, of the state of the city of Detroit as it falls into ruins.Note that the book is selective; of course Detroit is not dead, but shrinking. The pictures are evocative of destruction and ruin as of a silent, small-scale war. I downgraded it to 4 stars and not 5 because the text is small and light gray, as befits an "arty" book. I struggled mightily to view the text and finally gave up.
review 2: Not really a book you "read" as it is a collection of masterful photographs of one of America's former "wonder cities" that is now without livelihood or direction, but an excess of ruins. The prose in the book though in the form of introductory paragraphs and captions is very interesting, and serves to provide the human "glue" behind th... moree story these talented photographers are telling. It is a sad book - to see places that were so much full of life, lives and hopes for at least a time, and to see the ruins of the grand ideas of those that toiled and made (or lost) their fortunes in this unforgiving city cannot help but make you shake your head. It is oddly poignant in spots as well...such as a sequence around page 80 I beleve that shows the interior of a large 4,000 seat movie theater that was obviously grandly executed and decorated, and undoubtedly saw many a happy occasion. In the necessity of a declining city, it was brutally cut up inside and made into a three-level parking garage...the only parking garage that has the remnants of such grand paintings, gilt and frescoes on its vaulted ceilings being eaten away by the corrosive exhausts of vehicles. The real stab to the reader comes however, when the last caption casually mentions that the theater stands on the precise spot where Henry Ford built his first automobile. Truly a poignant and ironic 'full circle'. less

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