What We See

Life is funny.  Sometimes we get to see our view of the world when we look in the mirror.  Photography has an interesting way of acting as that mirror.  A couple of years ago, I got the opportunity to learn that lesson while taking pictures in downtown Detroit.

While my real passion in photography is nature-related, my job as an airline pilot brings me to layover in cities across the country.  I normally bring a camera and when there is enough time, try to sneak out and capture the essence of wherever I land.  This is what I intended to do on this particular trip.

We arrived around midnight, and this was my first time in Detroit.  So the first real look I got of the city was opening the hotel curtains in the morning and looking out the window.  The view I saw fulfilled any media-informed expectations I had of the city.  Abandoned buildings, broken windows, grass and plants growing out of roofs…not hard to capture this picture without ever having to leave the hotel room, which I did.

After looking back at the pictures, I realized that what I captured was the view of the city that I expected to see.  Based on my own personal biases, I was not surprised to see the state of disrepair and my bias was confirmed by looking right out the window.  

Then it hit me.  Capturing the “negative view” of a place was really not the heart of my style.  I look to find and capture the positive views nature offers and look for things I am grateful for.  But, for Detroit, I certainly failed to see the good…at least at first. I needed to do better than that, so I ventured out. 

It was clear, the town was undergoing renovation.  Despite the age, buildings still had some neat architectural character.

As I looked closer there were nice flower beds along the street.  The most profound part of this experience was when I looked around the corner too find a garden area. This was such a contrast to the surrounding city scape I had seen from the hotel window so I wandered over to take a look.  It turned out to be a community park with raised beds growing a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. I talked to a couple of the young folks taking care of the gardens to learn a little more. They were so excited and enthusiastic about what they were doing.  Much of the vegetables raised were donated to homeless shelters.  You could easily see the pride in the faces of these kids knowing the impact they were having.  They knew they were making a difference! 

A little later, I stumbled upon “Terry”, the lead caretaker who told me all about the park and it’s purpose. I confided in Terry this being my first trip to Detroit and the preconceived expectations of the city I brought with me.  Additionally, I shared how this park had completely thrown off what I believed and how excited I was seeing the impact of their efforts. He acknowledged and understood my preconceptions and with an unmistakable level of wisdom and heart of hope he smiled and said, “We are going to be OK!”

I will never forget that morning in both how much my attitude affects my photography but that the power of hope is an amazing thing.