Captured: The Ruins of Detroit




 William Livingstone House #


Up and down Detroit’s streets, buildings stand abandoned and in ruin. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city. Their book “The Ruins of Detroit“, a document of decaying buildings frozen in time, was published in December 2010.
From the photographers’ website:
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.
The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires. This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time : being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.
Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.


Woodward Avenue #



Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Atrium, Farwell Building #
Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
18th floor dentist cabinet, David Broderick Tower #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
United Artists Theater #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Fort Shelby Hotel #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Ballroom, American Hotel #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Melted clock, Cass Technical High School #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Donovan Building #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Old First Unitarian Church #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Piano, Saint Albertus School #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Luben Apartments #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Rich-Dex Apartments #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Classroom, St Margaret Mary School #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Biology classroom, Wilbur Wright High School #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
St Christopher House, ex-Public Library #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Fisher Body 21 Plant #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Room 1504, Lee Plaza Hotel #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Detroit?s Vanity Ballroom with its unsalvaged art deco chandeliers. Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey once played here. #
Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
East Methodist Church #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
East Side Public Library #




Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Offices, Highland Park Police Station #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Biology classroom at George W Ferris School in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park #





Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
The ballroom of the 15-floor art-deco Lee Plaza Hotel, an apartment building with hotel services built in 1929 and derelict since the early 1990s #



Captured: The Ruins of Detroit
Michigan Theatre #



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