Show Navigation

Marcin Szczepanski

  • Photography
  • Marketing Videos
  • Marketing Team Videos
  • Short Documentaries
  • Multimedia Projects
  • Leadership and Management
  • Instagram
  • Tearsheets
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area

Marcin Szczepanski

All Galleries
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x
Download

14 images Created 3 Oct 2021

Detroit, Cursed and Blessed

Great Recession of 2008-2010 hit Detroit particularly hard. This is a visual representation of those times.
View: 100 | All

Loading ()...

  • A pit-bull mix dog barks at a stranger in a Delray neighborhood in Detroit. Pit bulls are common in the city; they are feared for their jaw strength and admired for intelligence.  Dogs are kept for protection from thieves and burglars although they don't always work, a nearby resident complained that burglars twice shot and killed his dogs when he was away from home.   Delray used to be a predominantly Hungarian and Polish neighborhood.  Now mainly blacks and Mexicans inhabit the remaining houses. It's one of the most polluted areas in Michigan due to high concentration of highly polluting industry that encroached on the residential area of Detroit in recent decades when many residents moved out and factories shut down. The dog barks on the porch of Walter, whose wife is Polish. Walter, 74, moved from Kentucky to Detroit in 1950s looking for work. Since then he moved back to Kentucky twice when work dried up in Detroit.  After his marriage in Kentucky fell apart, he moved for the last time back to Detroit in 1990.  Walter stayed put in the neighborhood despite the exodus of most of his Hungarian American and Polish American neighbors to the suburbs.  He is busy untangling a power cord for leaf mulching machine.    Monday, November 1, 2010.  Marcin Szczepanski
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0001.JPG
  • A forgotten American flag flies high above a Detroit public school on near east side that was closed 5 months earlier. 59 public schools were shuttered in 2010. In 2011, Michigan has approved a proposal to close 70 additional schools, which would cut the number of schools in the district in half by 2014, leaving only 72 public schools in Detroit. As a result, high school class sizes would jump to 60 students each over the next few years. The changes are part of an effort to close a yawning budget deficit in Detroit.  Photo by Marcin Szczepanski,    October 6th,
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0003.JPG
  • Vietnam veteran, Clarence Weems, 62, monitors the street from the second floor of a building he bought years ago in a neighborhood off Oakwood Blvd. in southwest Detroit. The area is totally surrounded by heavy industrial sites. Weems says the area has calmed down a couple years ago after a group of residents banded together and kicked prostitutes out of Oakwood Blvd. They also helped police to crack down on drug dealers in the area but not before the crack house next door to him was shot up several times by competing drug dealers. Through the ordeal he stayed inside peeking through the door and clutching his guy in his hand.  Story is about the 48217 zip code, the most polluted zip code in Michigan and the efforts by people in it to get attention for their complaints about industrial pollution and environmental justice, which have largely been ignored. Detroit, MI.   Monday, June 7, 2010.    MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0002.JPG
  • "It don't exist" - an anonimous artist wrote that on severa burned down huses on Michigan Ave. in Detroit.  Michigan Ave. used to be one of the most commercially viable parts of the city due to a large concentration of factories that provided jobs to immigrants to the city (mainly Poles in this part of town). A large number of stores, bars and restaurants was frequented by area residents.  6-lane-wide Michigan Ave. was and still is one of the main streets in the city.  SInce the last factory shut down in 1990s, most residents moved out to the suburbs.  Impoverished city dwellers stripped the remaining houses and businesses and many burned down due to arson or fire incidents involving crack cocaine and heroin users. Michigan Ave and Martin St. in Detroit.    Monday, November 1, 2010.  Marcin Szczepanski
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0004.JPG
  • A fallen tree crashed a boat parked on the street on near east side in Detroit in the area where most houses are still standing and haven't been stripped yet. The boat was left there for months. November 17th, 2010.  Photo by Marcin Szczepanski  .
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0005.JPG
  • A homeless man who was born with four fingers receives food from a mobile soup kitchen on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Detroit.   October 19, 2010.    Photo by Marcin Szczepanski  .
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0006.JPG
  • The city of Detroit is demolishing some of the houses that were destroyed by fire on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. Here the crew is leveling 8111/8113 duplex on Robinwood St. in Detroit. Majority of the houses on this block of Robinwood were destroyed by fire.    Friday, September 10, 2010.  MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/Detroit Free Press
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0007.JPG
  • A group of residents hangs out on the bench across from the Peacemakers Mission on Chene St. in Detroit.  Almost all the business on the street that used to be the commercial heart of teh area are gone - replaced by burned down or boarded up houses, liquor stores and hole-in-the-wall churches.  Thursday, October 14, 2010.   MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/Detroit Free Press
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0009.JPG
  • Stray dogs have killed most of the cats in the mostly abandoned area of Chene St. area of Detroit. The family of Leroy Williams chains their two cats, including Tiger (pictured here), in the backyard an locks the gates to protect them.  East side of Detroit.  10/18/10  MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0008.JPG
  • An entertaining pickup game of basketball on an empty street near Chene St. in Detroit.  October 22, 2010.  Photo by Marcin Szczepanski  .
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0010.JPG
  • Neighbors enjoy splashing water from an open hydrant in southwest Detroit, in an old Italian neighborhood in 48217 zip code.   48217 zip code is the most polluted zip code in Michigan.  People in the area work to bring attention for their complaints about industrial pollution and environmental justice, which have largely been ignored. Detroit, MI, Thursday, May 27, 2010.    MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/Detroit Free Press
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0011.JPG
  • Eric B. Vaughn discusses works by artist Henry Heading with one of his customers Geralyn Gunn, 53, of Southfield at his "I've been framed shop" that doubles as a gallery and framing shop in Detroit.  He lowered his prices for the Black Friday this year.    November 26, 2010.   Marcin Szczepanski/Detroit Free Press
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0012.JPG
  • Amoni Barker, 10 runs through the water splashing out of an open hydrant, carrying her little sister Akeenyah, 4. It's a day before the one-year anniversary of the train-car crash that left five kids dead in Canton. The girls in the photo are sisters of two of the killed boys -- Sean and Terrence Harris.  The city has been scorched by the days of the heat wave that brought the temperatures of almost 100 degrees and some residents look for relief in the water from hydrants.      Detroit. Thursday July 8, 2010.    MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0014.JPG
  • Edith Floyd spreads seeds on a raised bed in her garden.   Growing Joy garden was created by Edith Floyd, a retired school employee in Detroit on a series of empty lots near her house. Last year she bought a tractor and she plans to expend her garden on the lots across the street. There are only a handful of houses left standing on her block in northeast Detroit.  April 22, 2010.  MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP
    Surviving Detroit_2021Website_0013.JPG