Ruins of Detroit by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Up and down Detroit’s streets, buildings stand abandoned and in ruin. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city. Their book “The Ruins of Detroit“, a document of decaying buildings frozen in time, was published in December 2010.
From the photographers’ website:
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.
The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires. This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time : being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.
Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.

1

William Livingstone House #

2

Michigan Central Station #

3

Woodward Avenue #

4

Atrium, Farwell Building #

5

18th floor dentist cabinet, David Broderick Tower #

6

Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit #

7

David Whitney Building #

8

United Artists Theater #

9

Fort Shelby Hotel #

10

Ballroom, American Hotel #

11

Melted clock, Cass Technical High School #

12

Donovan Building #

13

Old First Unitarian Church #

14

Piano, Saint Albertus School #

15

Luben Apartments #

16

Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, built in the Gothic revival style in 1911 #

17

Rich-Dex Apartments #

18

Classroom, St Margaret Mary School #

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Biology classroom, Wilbur Wright High School #

20

St Christopher House, ex-Public Library #

21

Fisher Body 21 Plant #

22

Room 1504, Lee Plaza Hotel #

23

Detroit?s Vanity Ballroom with its unsalvaged art deco chandeliers. Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey once played here. #

24

Packard Motors Plant #

25

Waiting hall, Michigan Central Station #

26

East Methodist Church #

27

East Side Public Library #

28

Offices, Highland Park Police Station #

29

Biology classroom at George W Ferris School in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park #

30

The ballroom of the 15-floor art-deco Lee Plaza Hotel, an apartment building with hotel services built in 1929 and derelict since the early 1990s #

31

Michigan Theatre #

32

Packard Motors Plant #