Photographer Sean Hemmerle depicts for Time, "an elegiac sign of America's fading industrial might in the crumbling urban ruins of the Motor City" in "The Remains of Detroit." The shots in this photo essay were taken in March, prior to the magnitude of the recent economic collapse becoming known and prior to the Big Three auto makers arriving in Washington for a second go at convincing Congress to fund a bailout for this "foundering" industry.
As evident from Hemmerle's work, some segments of the economy have been in disrepair for some time and as he says, "Industry is one of the things that we let go that we need to get back." Whether or not you favor bailing out the auto industry now, it's hard not to be moved by these photos and the evidence of this crumbling industry over time.
This is a snip of photo three in the series. Don't miss the entire collection.
Maybe there's an historian out there who can answer this for me: When did the Romans know that their empire was collapsing?
After they engaged in unnecessary expensive wars for the sake of self aggrandizement and patrimony for their political benefactors and the political citizenry, which was previously mollified by cheap entertainment, realized too late the system was corrupted and they'd been bankrupted by the ruling class.
Posted by: Sisyphus | December 06, 2008 at 08:39 AM
Yeah, kinda what I thought.... ;-)
Posted by: MountainGoat | December 13, 2008 at 08:04 PM