Photo Friday: Reflections of Detroit

I like to reflect on the good things in Detroit, and a recent outing covering a route between Greektown and the Detroit Riverfront with my local Photowalks Detroit group gave me the opportunity to do that in a real literal way by taking photos of reflected Detroit street scenes.

I've long been fascinated with taking indirect photographs of subjects as reflected in a shiny surface.

The segmented and distorted images sometimes remind me of abstract paintings.

And being the Motor City, it somehow seems appropriate that I caught most of these reflected images while checking some cars parked along the way.

Be sure to check out my posts from previous Detroit Photowalks:

Photowalk in Royal Oak, Michigan

Photowalk at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan

Cranbrook Gardens Photowalk

Curious about Detroit Photowalks and want to join the fun? Check out our group Flickr or Facebook pages.

I also did a pair of posts earlier this summer about my visit to Chicago's Cloud Gate (a.k.a. "The Bean"), a sculpture where the reflective surfaces invite visitors to see the site in different ways and interact with the work. See those photos at Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction and The Bean and Me in Chicago.

Here are a couple of books about Detroit and Detroit-based photographers that we have in our collection and like to check out every once in a while for inspiration:

Time Frames by Nancy Andrews, Peter Gavrilovich and Mauricio Gutierrez is a collection of images by Detroit Free Press staff photographers during Detroit's tricentennial in 2001.

And speaking of Detroit Free Press photographers, check out On Assignment: Projects in Photojournalism-From Initial Planning to Final Selection of Photographs by Tony Spina, one of our all-time favorite photo books. Even though the technical info is terribly dated (Tri-X film, 35mm camera, anyone?), Spina produced some of the most classic and memorable of Detroit. If you can score this out-of-print book for a few bucks, it's worth it just to check out the photos and the stories behind them.

 

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Comments

[Anna]

Love your very arty pictures!

[Amy @ The Q Family]

I love this! I have a picture I took in Asheville of the reflection as well. :)

[Dominique King]

Anna-Thanks! I enjoyed experimenting a bit that day.

Amy-Taking those reflected photos can be a lot of fun, can't they? I didn't realize how many reflected photos I've taken over the years until I started looking around in my collection!

[Kerry Dexter]

got me thinking about the photos I've taken with reflections, such an interesting way to think about image. a good friend grew up in Detroit, too, so always think of her when I see photos taken there. thanks.

[Dominique King]

Kerry-I didn't realize how many reflection photos I'd taken (especially during this particular outing) until I started looking at these. I do like playing with reflected images, and I've got another place in mind around here I need to go and try taking some more :)