A quick post from Hamtramck Michigan where we're visiting my in-laws until tomorrow when we'll return to our Windy City. There is something so engaging about Detroit. It's insane to see an industrialized city in utter shambles. It seems as though for each neighborhood street with 20 houses only 5 are inhabited, the others abandoned, burned or in complete dismay. To think this was such a booming city at one time and now it looks like a post apocalyptic city from one of those movies where people have to fight off cannibal gangs to survive and try to find other non cannibals living on earth. Seriously. I know there is hope for this city and that a lot of young artists are taking advantage of the incredibly cheap foreclosure deals (I saw a news clip of a couple that bought a house here for ONE DOLLAR, needless to say it needed a lot of work- but ONE DOLLAR.) and buying houses, making community farms and artist work spaces. People are taking advantage of getting land for cheap or free and are creating urban farms and gardens to live more sustainable lives and make all of this abandoned space useful. I love this idea and am really excited to see what's new each time we come to visit. I hope that when it's warmer I can come and take some photos of the city because you really have to see it to believe it.
New Years is just around the corner! I've rarely done something to celebrate and can't imagine this year will be any different. Does anybody have a New Years tradition my husband and I can borrow? I feel inspired by these two wonderful year end recaps Lingered Upon and DailyPic-Isabelle, and plan on putting one together tomorrow or Friday.
In the meantime here are some goals for myself for 2011:
- make the books I talked about here for friends.
- work on a project for my etsy shop.
- develop film at least once a month.
- make and frame prints for our apartment.
- take more photographs of people (I can be so shy about this).
- go on a jaunt to France.
- dive into the world of pack film.
- purchase a Hasselblad (fingers crossed!).
- go out and explore little Chicago's little nooks more.
- be more patient.
- archive one years worth of negatives by scanning them (oh boy.)
What goals are you setting for yourself? Did you achieve any goals you set for 2010?
detroit sounds so intriguing and now i am wishing i had some family or friends there so i could visit with my 5 cameras :) and just the thought of any city being sustainable makes me smile.
ReplyDeletei love your goals- i think i will adopt one, to take more photos of people (i am incredibly shy- hell, i am shy just shooting out in public much less with a camera ON someone!). it's always been a more private, meditative art for me.
and i am jealous you can even THINK about a hasselblad. my dream camera.
happy new year to you!
Detroit is definitely worth exploring, especially if you have a guide. It really does feel like a place that is so distraught but full of so much promise.
ReplyDeleteI've started photographing people with a little project to make portraits of my family with Impossible Project film. I am pretty excited on this little way to help ease me out of my discomfort at asking people to let me take their pictures. i've always preferred to photograph candidly but I love portraits and I think they're important. Here's to use conquering our people fears!!
Don't let me mislead you, I can't really afford a Hasselblad. I just look on craigslist all the time with the hopes that someone will have mercy on me and let me purchase their 500 c/m for a few hundred bucks. Haha.
Happy New Year!