Cityscape

Video: PBS Profiles Amy Sacka, Who Shot 500 Detroit Photos in 500 Days

January 28, 2015, 9:36 PM by  Alan Stamm

Amy Sacka is a creative powerhouse who writes marketing copy, freelances for ad agencies, develops branding ideas and -- as PBS NewsHour showcased Tuesday night -- does street photography in Detroit every day.

The five-minute feature above, produced by Roy Feldman for Detroit Public Television, is about a photography series she calls "Lost and Found in Detroit." A NewsHour post explains:

The project originally started as a 365-photo essay. ​Sacka challenged herself to take a photograph every day of the city and its residents, but one year was not enough. At the end of 365 days, she extended the project to 500. . . .

Her work spans street scenes, portraits, and landscape and architectural photography, capturing a varied and nuanced representation of a city that is often viewed through a narrow lens.

“I’m seeing things that not everyone is seeing by going into these environments and I think the world deserves to see that slice of Detroit.”

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Amy Sacka: "You can’t know a street until you walk it." (Facebook photo)

At her website, Sacka says she moved to Detroit -- "the city next to my hometown" (Grosse Pointe) -- because "I’m fascinated by everything about it. I moved here to discover what it’s really about — beyond the headlines and pictures of ruin we see in papers and magazines. . . . You can’t know a street until you walk it."

She elaborates on her Facebook business page:

Before I moved here I didn't know Detroit even had neighborhoods. What is West Village? Where is Palmer Woods?

Now, I know the how-you-get-from-here-to-there. But it's the how we got from there to here. The neighbors in the neighborhood.

That interest inspires Part Two of her ongoing Detroit photo essay -- "The Next 500 Days." Here's how the camera artist frames it:

I want to explore what it means to establish roots. How will the picture change as I make the transition from being a fresh face in the city to becoming a more permanent resident? How will changes like the M1 rail and the evolving Brush Park neighborhood affect the landscape and our memories of the city?

As gentrification and new investors cast an eye on Detroit, what will this do to lifelong Detroit residents and time-honored traditions? How will this affect our stories, memory, sense of place and photographs of Detroit?


Read more:  PBS NewsHour


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