Passage to…., photo by Ajit Rudrangi
The Exposure Detroit February 2009 Exhibit opens next Friday (Feb 20) from 7-10 PM at the Bean & Leaf Cafe in Royal Oak. The show features work from five photographers:
These openings are a great chance to view work from some very talented photographers and to meet many fimne folks from the Exposure.Detroit group.
You can view this photo from an Exposure.Detroit Ann Arbor photo safari larger in Ajit’s Exposure Detroit Show Probables set (slideshow)
Michigan Library II: Polaris Ring by David Barr, photo by farlane.
Since I’m writing a rant today, I figured I’d use my own photo.
The Freep reports (also Detroit News) that Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is expected to announce the disbanding of the Michigan Department of History, Arts & Libraries (HAL) in her State of the State Address tonight at 7 PM.
There’s no word as to how that would impact the libraries, arts organizations and museums that HAL works with, but one can only imagine that it won’t be good. With universities and schools, the State Fair and other state programs facing deep cuts, you can bet that there will be a lot of hand wringing by the Governor and legislators on both sides of the aisle in the days and months to come.
I just want to say that this crisis has been looming for years and as a person with the job of watching Michigan, I’ve watched our elected officials on all sides worry about their political capital, re-election, counting coup on each other and pretty much doing everything but making the hard choices they needed to make. Now, they will face a mountain of unhappy choices and wonder theatrically what they could have done.
My answer? The jobs we elected them to do…
Michigan public television stations will broadcast the address and the Freep will be streaming the State of the State online and I’ll be somehow or other live blogging it at Absolute Michigan.
The sculpture in front of the Library of Michigan is called Polaris Ring by David Barr. Here is the info about it from their “Visions of Michigan” page.
From Easter Island to Africa, from Greenland to New Guinea — David Barr’s work is displayed worldwide. Specializing in project that employ geographic, geometric and geological elements, his Polaris Ring outside the Center’s main entrance often reminds visitors of a modern-day Stonehenge.
Fifty steel columns encircle a five ton kona dolomite boulder. Smaller stones spinout in a spiral pattern on either side.
”The combination of stone and steel represents the interface of prehistoric imagery with man’s technological imagery and strengths,“ Barr notes. The result is a mystical progression of space and volume that draws people toward the facility.
Based on a universal symbol — Polaris, the North Star — viewers are able to stand behind the sculpture’s center stone and look between the two tallest columns to see the star.
”Instead of having to look at the overall sculpture from the outside, I want people to be able to experience if from inside as well,“ he says.
I hope you get a chance to experience this sculpture and this very cool museum.
H, photo by JoeJoeSmoe.
Looking up in downtown Detroit with the Guardian Building on the left, One Detroit Center in the middle One Woodward Ave on the right and the People Mover cutting through. In case you’re wondering, this is not an HDR.
Check it out larger right here.
Jump, photo by jnhkrawczyk.
I saw this photo of Nikki jumping which reminded me of the photos last week of assorted maniacs jumping over Detroit and I realized that there’s a whole lot of jumping going on in the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr.
The part of me that tries to relate everything to Michigan thinks that all this jumping could be a very essential skill for Michiganders in the days to come. By all accounts, our free-falling state economy is still falling, meaning that more cuts to schools and other public services could be coming this year and next. While Michigan’s auto manufacturers have been granted a temporary reprieve, I don’t think anyone expects them to return to the point where they can drive our economy as they once did.
I think we’re at the point as a state where we need to make our best guess as to where Michigan’s future is, gather our strength, and jump with all our might.
This photo is part of Jill’s Black & White set (slideshow). It was taken in front of the Fisher Building at the Motor City Am Jam at the Comerica Cityfest last summer and was in no way selected for this post to imply jumping OFF anything as a solution – rather to show how high and exuberantly we will need to jump!
Exposure.Detroit, which I think is Michigan’s largest photographer group, will be taking another step next week with the January 15th opening of the Exposure.Detroit Gallery at the Garden City Hospital. Here are the details on the opening, and I’m guessing that someone from the group might drop by to tell us more about the gallery.
I don’t know if Meghan will have any work hanging in the inaugural show, but I bet she will before too long. See this photo (and others) bigger in her my favorites set (slideshow)
gray, photo by buckshot.jones.
Scott aka buckshot.jones has a tremendous set of photos titled Detroit Journal – Words and Pictures. Some are funny, some revisit the past and many more take a hard look at the state of the city.
If you love Detroit or simply wonder what happened and is happening in the city, I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Here are the words that go with the photo above:
I’d look into the mirror every morning only to find the same guy staring back. Then, it seems suddenly, I find some 50 year old grump is staring back. Who is this guy? The changes happen so slowly with such steady force I failed to see the changes. I noticed the laugh lines around my eyes are now stubbornly etched into my face even in times of scorn. As I contemplate these changes I think of friends and family and how, in my mind’s eye, they are still 21, bolted down in time. Just like me, or so I thought. Now consider that old friend you haven’t seen in 10 or 15 years. Think of how you had to do a double take when you met after all those years. The face is familiar but the changes make you not quite sure. You hesitantly state their name with a question, “John?”
For me my home town is curiously like encountering that long lost friend. I have lived here my entire life yet over the last couple years the changes in Detroit have, at times, struck me as startling. For most of my early life, as a schoolboy and a young adult, I spent my time working throughout the city neighborhoods and business districts. During all that time these neighborhoods were in decline, I just never noticed the change. About 10 years ago I took a job that had me traveling a great deal in Canada and since that time my professional life has found me spending most of my time away from home traveling all over the Midwest.
As my body banned me from playing basketball and my lack of patience killed my golf game, photography filled the distraction void. Trading the links for a photo safari on my weekends, I started to wander around my old haunts mostly in search of connections to my memories. I was struck by what I found, or in some instances failed to find- my home town suddenly got old. “Detroit….right?”
Detail from the House that Father Coughlin Built…, photo by “CAVE CANEM”.
As we prepare to leave 2008 at the docks and set sail on 2009, I think there’s probably a lot that we hope to leave behind, and much that we hope to discover in the year to come.
I hope that all of you find what you’re seeking in the year to come and that you have very happy and safe celebrations tonight!
Be sure to view this larger and check out C.C.’s In Through the Out Door set (slideshow).
You can read more about the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak on Wikipedia and the story of the “venom and compassion” of the man behind its construction 1930s radio priest Father Charles E. Coughlin.
Industrial Haven, photo by Jesse Speelman.
Attention superheroes: if you’re looking for a cool & moody hideout, Detroit has you covered!
Be sure to view it bigger, on black. Chancellor Monnette has a cool photo of the tunnel and a map.
A Michigan December, Henderson Castle, photo by John Clement Howe.
Henderson Castle, constructed 1895 and now a bed & breakfast.
View this bigger along with more photos of Henderson Castle in John’s Historic Homes of Kalamazoo set (slideshow), read more about Henderson Castle on Michigan in Pictures and see a video tour of Henderson Castle on YouTube.
Untitled, photo by Brooke Pennington.
…probably seems like you never left, right?
View this photo (and many more) bigger in Brooke’s slideshow and see the same building in summer.
If you need another link, here’s “winter” as performed by the Absolute Michigan pool.
Michigan in Pictures 