Bill Rauhauser, Stone Burlesk,
Woodward Ave., Detroit, about 1960.
Detroit Institute of Arts. ©Bill Rauhauser, 2012
Detroit is the Star of a new Photography Exhibition at
Detroit Institute of Arts
Motor City Muse: Detroit Photographs, Then and
Now presents a fascinating take
on city
Nicola Kuperus, Flat, 2006. Detroit Institute of Arts. ©Nicola Kuperus, 2012
Many
Detroiters will recognize familiar landscapes, people and neighborhoods in the
exhibition Motor City Muse: Detroit Photographs, Then and Now at the
Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Dec. 14, 2012–June 16, 2013.
Motor City
Muse looks at Detroit’s history,
diverse population and culture through the eyes of photographers from
as early as 1947 to as recently as last
year: the Detroit pride in people who live here; the individuals and the city
that powered the booming auto industry; fantasies woven into car ads; funny,
unexpected moments; everyday life; gigantic cityscapes; and intimate
portraits. The exhibition is organized by the DIA and is free with museum
admission. Support has been provided by the Chrysler brand and Quicken
Loans.
“Detroit’s culture has long
held a deep fascination for photographers,” said Graham W. J. Beal, DIA
director. “It is fitting that we have two sponsors also focused on Detroit’s
vitality and we are grateful to both Chrysler and Quicken for supporting this
presentation of Detroit as seen through the lenses of some of the most notable
photographers in the world.”
Bill Rauhauser, Kresge Court, Detroit Institute of Arts,
1960s.
Detroit Institute of Arts. ©Bill Rauhauser, 2012
The featured photographers
are:
Henri Cartier-Bresson
French photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson visited Detroit while on a cross-country trip across the U.S. in
1947. Cartier-Bresson believed Detroit was an American phenomenon that reflected
the values and lifestyles of average Americans. His fascination with everyday
life in post-World War II Detroit is illustrated in photos of a veteran’s parade on Woodward Avenue, a
shift changeover at the Ford Motor Company River Rouge Plant, workers dwarfed by
the enormous blast furnace on Zug Island and wedding couples near the James
Scott Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle.
Bill
Rauhauser
During more than 40 years
taking photographs on the streets of Detroit, Bill Rauhauser built an archive of
more than 10,000 negatives, each of which vividly evokes the feel of the city as
the years passed. Whether photographing a bored teenager behind a french-fries
counter at the Michigan State Fair or a highly groomed shoe salesman in front of
a Woodward Avenue storefront, Rauhauser has said, “I tried to find something
that somehow said something about people…and human nature.”
Rauhauser frequently worked on
thematic series using Detroit’s landmarks, public spaces and local events as a
backdrop for his subjects. Select photographs from these series include an amateur photographer snapping pictures of loved
ones in front of the now-demolished Ford Auditorium, a stylish female smoker
caught unaware in the DIA’s Kresge Court, and two old women chatting in
front of Detroit’s notorious and bygone Stone Burlesk club.
Robert Frank
In 1955,
Swiss-born Robert Frank traveled through America to make a “broad and voluminous
picture record” of how Americans lived and worked. Frank drove to many cities,
but considered Detroit and its legendary Ford Motor Company River Rouge factory
a priority. He gained rare access to
assembly lines at the Rouge plant, where he took pictures of the harsh
conditions, repetition, and danger of factory work. Frank captured ordinary
moments that were both strange and dynamic in their depiction of day-to-day
physical exertion on the assembly lines. One photo shows the front end of a 1955
Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria as it dangled precariously above an autoworker who
was finishing its assembly.
During his time
in Detroit, Frank also took photos of diners, drive-ins, and parks. He saw
Detroit culture as unique to the American experience, and select photographs
became part of his groundbreaking 1958 book The Americans.
Dave Jordano
In 1973, 25-year-old Dave
Jordano photographed some of Detroit’s most distinctive and oldest buildings and
neighborhoods. When he rediscovered these photos more than 30 years later, he
realized how dramatically Detroit had changed and was inspired to photograph the
same locations in 2010. His pictures provide a fascinating look at the changes
that occurred at familiar Detroit locations in the span of 37 years. Included
are the John Bagley Memorial Fountain at
Campus Martius, the Great Hall in the Michigan Central Station, and the site on
Farmer Street where Crowley’s department store once stood.
Jordano also shot portraits of
Detroit residents for a project he called “Detroit Unbroken Down.” He said,
“I wanted to share my experience that
Detroit is still a living, breathing organism, full of life and movement.”
Russ Marshall
Detroiter Russ Marshall
photographed at the Ford River Rouge plant and other Midwestern factories from
1969 to 1993, many for the United Auto Workers’ Solidarity magazine. He
noted that most people liked to have their picture taken, “if approached
directly and shown a little respect.” One 1993 photograph entitled Assembler,
American Beauty Electric Irons and Heaters, Detroit, Michigan captures a
worker in a recently demolished factory. Marshall, the son of an autoworker,
experienced the era of downsizing and factory closings in and around Detroit. He
understood the importance of creating lasting images of Detroit workers and
commented, “… I knew and sensed over time that these jobs and these
workers and these factories would someday be gone; replaced by something or nothing. It wasn’t lost on me
that I had this opportunity to document and preserve the fact that these workers
did exist at this time and in this place.”
Russ Marshall, Detroit Steel
Plant Laborers, 1979.
Detroit Institute of Arts. ©Russ Marshall, 2012
Karin Jobst
German artist
Karin Jobst photographed in Detroit between 2010 and 2012. While investigating
the history of photography and art in Detroit, she visited the DIA to study
Robert Frank’s 1955 photos. Jobst suggested her work be installed with Frank’s
because of the unique perspective they brought as European artists photographing
the city.
Jobst experiments with film
exposures to alter colors and enhance a sense of time and place. Through color,
she intends to remind us of different decades in the city’s history: the art
deco glow of the 1920s Fisher building or the stark creamy interiors of the
1970s-era Renaissance Center.
One of her works is a grid made
of small vignettes of Detroit’s cityscape, architecture, public parks, freeways,
and stills from films about the city. Together, the images present what Jobst
calls “timelayers”—architectural styles and other city sights that represent
different decades in time.
Nicola
Kuperus
Detroiter Nicola Kuperus, who previously assisted on commercial
car shoots in and around Detroit, played with the idea of commercial car
photography and the female model in her personal work. Inspired by fashion and
advertising photography, Kuperus stages large-scale color photographs that
feature beautiful vintage cars and well-dressed women in questionable scenarios.
A 2006 photo entitled Flat shows the
body of a woman passed out with a tire iron in her hand near a rare 1950s
Chrysler 300. Kuperus notes that her work isn’t a direct reaction to advertising
photography but “… is influenced mostly by
the absurdity I feel in life on a day to day basis. It’s based on my reactions
to experiences, what I’m feeling at that moment and how I translate that tension
into my work.”
The Detroit School of
Automotive Photography
Detroit’s association with cars
created a legendary school of automotive photography. Work by early innovators
is featured, including Walter Farynk, Jimmy Northmore, Mickey McGuire and Vern
Hammarlund and Warren O. Winstanley. Selections featured illustrate the careful
attention these photographers gave to lighting, composition and color to create
the perfect image. Collaborating with art directors on set design, model
casting, styling and final visual concept, these photographers helped create
lifestyle fantasies surrounding the automobile’s “latest model.”
Hours and
Admission
Museum hours are 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays. MUSEUM HOURS WILL CHANGE BEGINNING NOV. 13 TO:
Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; Fridays, 9
a.m.–10 p.m.; Saturdays–Sundays, 10 a.m. –5 p.m.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6
for seniors, $4 for ages 6-17, and free for DIA members and residents of Wayne,
Oakland and Macomb counties. For membership information call
313-833-7971.