No longer the Motor City of boom-time industry, the city of Detroit has fallen into an incredible state of dilapidation since the decline of the American auto industry after the Second World War. Today, whole sections of the city resemble a war zone, its once-spectacular architectural grandeur reduced to vacant ruins. In "Detroit Disassembled," photographer Andrew Moore records a territory in which the ordinary flow of time-or the forward march of the assembly line-appears to have been thrown spectacularly into reverse. For Moore, who throughout his career has been drawn to all that contradicts or seems to threaten America's postwar self-image (his previous projects include portraits of Cuba and Soviet Russia), Detroit's decline affirms the carnivorousness of our earth, as it seeps into and overruns the buildings of a city that once epitomized humankind's supposed supremacy. In "Detroit Disassembled," Moore locates both dignity and tragedy in the city's decline, among postapocalyptic landscapes of windowless grand hotels, vast barren factory floors, collapsing churches, offices carpeted in velvety moss and entire blocks reclaimed by prairie grass. Beyond their jawdropping content, Moore's photographs inevitably raise the uneasy question of the long-term future of a country in which such extreme degradation can exist unchecked.
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Although there is plenty of rubble in "Detroit Disassembled," Mr. Moore's work usually escapes the narrow constraints of the genre. His large-scale prints-some up to 5 feet by 6 feet - are sumptuous and painterly, rich in texture and color: the emerald carpet of moss growing on the floor of Henry Ford's office at the Model T plant, the pumpkin-orange walls of a vandalized classroom at Cass Technical High School, the crimson panels of a former F.B.I. shooting range. Photos like those of the enormous rolling hall at Ford's River Rouge plant and a sunset over the Bob-Lo Island boat dock were inspired, Mr. Moore said, by 19th-century American landscape painters like Frederic Church and Martin Johnson Heade.--Mike Rubin"The New York Times" (08/21/2011)
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To quote from the Product Description above: `Today, whole sections of the city resemble a war zone, its once-spectacular architectural grandeur reduced to vacant ruins'. Most of us, of course, don't have personal experience of war zones but we can all pull up a mental picture which is probably partially accurate. Andrew Moore's quite extraordinary photos will confirm your mental image but the freaky thing is that Detroit is no war zone. The population didn't leave because of bombs or military intervention; mostly they didn't even leave but continue to survive amongst all this decaying industrial, public and private building detritus.
The thing that grabbed me and Moore's photos reveal it so often is the amount of physical equipment that was just left as buildings were abandoned. Page twenty-three shows a huge open-plan room of the Detroit Schools Book Depository, the whole floor covered with books that are slowly decaying. Page fifty-five has an amazing shot of one side of the Cass Tech High School, minus sixteen large classroom windows to reveal a jumble of desks, chairs, tables, casual seating and books and papers everywhere. Again at Cass, Moore spotted a wall clock with a plastic dial, part of which melted over the hour and minute hands, the only time you'll ever see a real Dali timepiece.
Several exterior shots of houses show them either collapsing or showing signs of heavy amateurish DIY. Page ninety-six has a house totally covered in foliage with just a sliver of the roof to be seen confirming that it is two stories. Some interiors really do look like bomb damage, with falling walls and ceilings. The circular lobby of the downtown United Artists Theater reveals some of the steel structure because chunks of plaster have fallen off.... Read more ›
The thing that grabbed me and Moore's photos reveal it so often is the amount of physical equipment that was just left as buildings were abandoned. Page twenty-three shows a huge open-plan room of the Detroit Schools Book Depository, the whole floor covered with books that are slowly decaying. Page fifty-five has an amazing shot of one side of the Cass Tech High School, minus sixteen large classroom windows to reveal a jumble of desks, chairs, tables, casual seating and books and papers everywhere. Again at Cass, Moore spotted a wall clock with a plastic dial, part of which melted over the hour and minute hands, the only time you'll ever see a real Dali timepiece.
Several exterior shots of houses show them either collapsing or showing signs of heavy amateurish DIY. Page ninety-six has a house totally covered in foliage with just a sliver of the roof to be seen confirming that it is two stories. Some interiors really do look like bomb damage, with falling walls and ceilings. The circular lobby of the downtown United Artists Theater reveals some of the steel structure because chunks of plaster have fallen off.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Ian P
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've been interested in the products of Detroit for nearly fifty years.
This book has very few words, the pictures say everything that needs to be said,how a city that was the world capital of car production end up like this almost a post apocolyptic landscape. This is I suppose how ruins of ancient civilisations looked after their inhabitants had left.
There are numerous books available charting the rise and decline of the US car industry but the images in this book say more than any text can.
I cannot recommend this book enough it's an amazing achievement.
This book has very few words, the pictures say everything that needs to be said,how a city that was the world capital of car production end up like this almost a post apocolyptic landscape. This is I suppose how ruins of ancient civilisations looked after their inhabitants had left.
There are numerous books available charting the rise and decline of the US car industry but the images in this book say more than any text can.
I cannot recommend this book enough it's an amazing achievement.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By VR
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A beautiful portrait of this incredible city. Haunting images taken with sympathy and intelligence. This is a book of extremely high quality.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Ann Courtney
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
My title says it all - dark, moody and sad photography which shows derelict splendour in its many forms.
The quality of the photographs is superb.
The quality of the photographs is superb.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Post-industrial or post apocalyptic?
Abandoned car plants that were once the biggest factories on Earth.
A grand theatre building, now used as a parking lot.
An abandoned mansion.
A city where once 7 million people lived and now 1 million people live.
Little wonder perhaps, that some of the greatest music on this planet comes from here.
Never lucky enough to have been myself. Goin' there someday.
Abandoned car plants that were once the biggest factories on Earth.
A grand theatre building, now used as a parking lot.
An abandoned mansion.
A city where once 7 million people lived and now 1 million people live.
Little wonder perhaps, that some of the greatest music on this planet comes from here.
Never lucky enough to have been myself. Goin' there someday.
0 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By 900cc
Format:Hardcover
This isn't worth the money. The pictures just aren't good enough, despite the compelling title... One of those books you'd pick up in a bookshop, have a quick flick through and then put down and forget. Don't bother.
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