The Future turns 100

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Guardian Building

The Guardian Building, photo by Ralph Krawczyk Jr.

The Futurist Manifesto by Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was published on February 20, 1909 in Le Figaro. Futurism rejected the past and celebrated speed, machinery and industry … and also war, violence, pollution, misogyny, the triumph of technology over nature and likely influenced fascism.

Futurism influenced many other twentieth century art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism, Surrealism and Dada. Futurism as a coherent and organized artistic movement is now regarded as extinct, having died out in 1944 with the death of its leader Marinetti, and Futurism was, like science fiction, in part overtaken by ‘the future’.

Ralph says that this is a 1 minute + exposure with cable release Holga modification. Best viewed large. You can do that in his Holga Goodness slideshow. You can learn more about The Guardian Building in Detroit from Michigan in Pictures.

Passage to… the February Exposure.Detroit Show!

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

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)

H in the D

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

H

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.

Detroit’s Belle Isle Ice Blob

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Ice Blob

The Ice Blob, photo by Cherie S..

Cherie says this has been shot to death but how can anyone not want to shoot this thing?

You can get this bigger right here and in her Michigan can be a Winter Wonderland set (slideshow). There’s a whole lot more pictures in this thread discussing the ice formation @ Belle Isle in Exposure.Detroit and also the Belle Isle ice show on Flickr.

I wasn’t able to come up with a definitive answer as to the hows and whys and wherefors of this amazing creation, but Chris Rabior at DetroitCity.com says that he’s done some digging and it it appears that this has been an annual attraction since at least the 60s and that our unusually cold winter has allowed for a much more impressive ice buildup than recent years.

More winter backgrounds on the Michigan Winter Wallpaper page

A Dream Realized

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

A Dream Realized, photo by lorainedicerbo

This photo by Loraine DiCerbo was taken at the Hiedelberg Project in Detroit. It’s part of her Detroit set (slideshow).

I thought it would be a fitting picture to pair with this excerpt from the text of Dr. Martin Luther King’s December 18, 1963 address at Western Michigan University:

The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now it is true that the geographical oneness of this age has come into being to a large extent through man’s scientific ingenuity. Man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place, time and change. Our jet planes have compressed minutes into distances that once took months and weeks and days. I think Bob Hope has adequately described this new jet age in which we live. He said “It is an age in which it is possible to take a non-stop flight from Los Angeles, California to New York city–a distance of some three thousand miles–and if on taking off in Los Angeles you develop hiccups, you will ‘hic’ in Los Angeles and ‘cup’ in New York City.” You know it is possible because time difference to take a non-stop flight from Tokyo, Japan on Sunday morning and arrive in Seattle, Washington on the preceding Saturday night and when your friends meet you at the airport and ask when you left Tokyo, you will have to say, I left tomorrow.

Now this is a bit humorous but I’m trying to laugh a basic fact into all of us. It is simply this, that through our scientific genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood. Now through our ethical and moral commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone.

…or state. We have a lot of work before us, and I hope that Michigan can be an active and engaged part of reshaping our naton and world for a changed future.

2009 Detroit Auto Show – January 17-25

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

MotorShowNetwork-NAIAS-2009-chrysler-jeep-patriotI0002

MotorShowNetwork-NAIAS-2009-chrysler-jeep-patriotI0002, photo by TechShowNetwork.

The 2009 North American International Auto Show takes place January 17-25, 2009 at Cobo Center in Detroit. You can get all kinds of stories about the Detroit Auto Show at Absolute Michigan. One of my favorite stories we’ve posted about it is this great column by Jack Lessenberry. Check it (and the show) out if you can!

This photo is part of a great 300+ picture slideshow from the media preview of the and is courtesy MotorShowNetwork.com and copyright Jochen Siegle/MOtorShowNetwork and shows Chrysler unveiling their ENVI electric-drive vehicle the Jeep Patriot EV at the media preview.

Speaking of slideshows, here’s the auto-magically generated 2009 NAIAS slideshow from Flickr!

The Michigan Jump

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Jump

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!

Motown Records / Hitsville USA 50th Anniversary in 2009

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

FH040003

FH040003, photo by haycarrieanne.

If you check it out bigger you can read the historical marker … or check out the front and back at Mich Markers! Carrie has many more cool shots in her Capturing Detroit set (slideshow).

Wikipedia’s Motown Records page says that Motown Records (Tamla Motown outside of North America) was founded in Detroit, Michigan. by Berry Gordy as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959. That makes next Monday Motown’s 50th birthday!

“Hitsville USA” is now the Motown Historical Museum. They write:

There were many many talented young artists, musicians, song writers, producers, engineers and staffers who contributed to the Motown Sound. They came to Hitsville because they loved making music. Hitsville became known as a hit factory. It was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, cranking out hit after hit record from 1959 until 1972.

“My own dream for a hit factory was shaped by principles I learned on the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line. At the plant, cars started out as just a frame, pulled along on conveyor belts until they emerged at the end of the line – brand spanking new cars rolling off the line. I wanted the same concept for my company, only with artists and songs and records. I wanted a place where a kid off the street could walk in one door an unknown and come out another a recording artist…a star!”
~ Berry Gordy, (Founder, Motown Record Corporation)

Motown is just one of the Michigan businesses, organizations and municipalities celebrating an anniversary in 2009 – head over to Absolute Michigan and the 2009 Michigan Anniversaries page to see many more and add ones we might have missed!

Exposure.Detroit Gallery Opening

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Untitled, photo by mlephotos.

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)

Detroit Journal – Words and Pictures by buckshot.jones

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gray

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?”