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Photo: Glemie, West Side, 2011. Glemie, a retired truck driver and 50-year resident of Detroit, is an accomplished blues singer. He's also into small game hunting skills. (Photo by Dave Jordano)
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Photographer Dave Jordano, a native of Royal Oak, moved to Chicago in the late '70s after graduating from the Center for Creative Studies.
Over the many years, he came back to visit the in laws in the suburbs, but paid little attention to Detroit. Then he started seeing all these photography books of Detroit that highlighted the ruin -- or porn ruin as it became commonly known as.
"I was shocked," Jordano, 67, told Deadline Detroit in phone interview from Chicago. "It was awful."
So in 2010, he started a five-year project. He came regularly to Detroit to photograph the city. He didn't want to do the ruin porn, but also didn't want to focus on the narrative that Detroit's was on a comeback.
"I wanted to change the opinion of what people thought of Detroit and wanted to take photographs of people still living there," he said. "I've always wanted to focus on the people who have been living in the distressed areas, who have faced hardships but have perseverance and hope."
"Nobody talks about this," he said. "All they want to hear about is the development, the new jobs and the entrepreneurial spirit. That's great, but that's only 5 percent of what the city is going through. "
On Sept. 22, his photography book called "Detroit: Unbroken Down," will be released. The book, published by PowerHouse Books, has 93 photographs and some text about the city.
"I never expected to publish a book, but after doing all this work, I thought "this work has got to be seen."
The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com.
LyLye
Kids playing outside in Corktown. (Photo by Dave Jordano)
