Inga Ecker | Vastfreedom

During my stay in Michigan, I couldn’t resist but do some exploring around Detroits abandoned neighborhoods.

You might know from previous posts, that I try to avoid touristy places, even though it’s not always possible, and rather explore areas which aren’t so popular.

Before driving into Detroits suburbs, I did some research and found out that actually many people would be interested in going there but decide not to, due to the high crime rate.

I, however, decided to have a closer look, and told myself, if I feel unsafe at any point, to just stay in the car.

My first stop was Brush Park. When I arrived there, I was surprised. I’ve never seen such a high police presence before. In nearly every side road were police cars and officers, but hardly any pedestrians.

I felt so safe that I chose to park my car and roam around the almost empty streets carrying my expensive camera in order to take photos. The abandoned, broken mansions looked incredible. They were all over the place, it’s hard to imagine why people left all that behind.

I crossed a couple of roads and all of a sudden a huge fox was standing in front of me. He seemed to be checking me out and then left into the garden of one of the villas. I would have never expected to see a fox in a metropolitan area.

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My next stop was Michigan Central Station, which used to be the main rail depot in Detroit, the key gateway to the Midwest. Today, the building is abandoned, and broken. The train passengers are long gone. You find yourself alone in front of a huge building, no one’s around. No cars, no people.

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I moved on to the other side of the city, to the former Packard Automotive Plant. A lot of policemen were around that place as well, so I decided to also get out of the car to take some photos. Where a hundred years ago luxury cars were produced, a symbol of wealth and progressiveness for that area, you find today only the remnants of those golden times.

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I left Detroit with a bittersweet feeling, thinking about its former glory, and the remains that are still there, which will keep the memories in every broken brick for the next centuries.

After all I can highly recommend exploring Detroits neighborhoods. But always take care and check out the surroundings first, as situations might change.

All of the photos displayed in this blog post were taken in Detroit. I did some editing on most of them, in order to be able to share the atmosphere. Being surrounded by abandoned mansions and empty train stations as well as broken factories, felt like being in a movie set and very surreal.

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Equipment:

• Nikon D750
• Nikkor 24mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6

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