At the heart of America’s Rustbelt story, the experience of deindustrialisation, population loss and infrastructure collapse in Detroit has been extreme. It has inspired almost an industry of ‘ruin porn’ photography. Dave Jordano’s long term documentation of the city focuses instead on the resilience and creativity of people who have been left to their own devices.

"Detroit is my hometown, but I’ve been gone for over three decades. As a child growing up, my dad, who worked all his life for General Motors, used to joke and say that we had motor oil in our veins. Even after all these years I still believe there is some small truth to what he said.

I wanted to see for myself what everyone was talking about. I was initially drawn to the same subjects as other photographers: the crumbling factory interiors, the empty lots and burned-out houses that consume a third of the city, the massive abandoned commercial infrastructure. It took me a week to make me realise I was contributing nothing to a subject almost everyone already knew about – especially those who had been living there for years. I began looking at the various neighbourhoods and the people who live within them.

Most Detroiters wear their pride for their city much like a badge of courage, defying all odds, openly admitting that if you can survive here, you can survive just about anywhere. This project bears witness to the fact that Detroit is not a story about what’s been destroyed, but more importantly about what’s been left behind and those who are coping with it." -

More information can be found here.

Photo Credit: © Dave Jordano