January 23, 2012

Saint Agnes Church - Detroit, MI

This past Saturday I awoke at 6:30am... ON PURPOSE!

I had actually voluntarily signed up for a photography workshop to shoot an unnamed abandoned building in downtown Detroit with a wonderful group of people from Motor City Photography Workshops.

This was my first abandoned building shoot, so I was very excited to get all bundled up at the crack of dawn and go into the "D" to climb about an old building!

Now, this may not sound like fun to you, but to ME...  this was an ideal Saturday morning!

The secret place turned out to be a complex of buildings that was once the Saint Agnes Church and school.

It was expansive, gorgeous, and sad.  This astonishing building was once a place of worship and learning.  Now, it was little more than a banquet hall for ravers, a canvas for taggers, and a place to rest for the homeless.

The transformation that has occurred to this building is sadly nothing new to the city of Detroit.  My hope in photographing this old gem of a once thriving metropolis, is that it will help preserve the beauty and history that is being lost in our precious Motor City.

















3 comments:

  1. wouldnt be amazing to stumble across money to preserve such a beautiful place. the lines, the detaol, i adore all the character it has to offer (: man...its sad. i love the pic of all the junk on the stairs. its would look sweet on my classroom wall

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  2. Your photos are beautiful and sad at the same time. What a wonderful job of capturing this once vital place of worship, learning, and community.

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  3. It would be wonderful to be able to restore many of these abandoned places in Detroit. Unfortunately, there just isn't the money.

    If I end up selling some of these images, I will contact you about the stairs picture if you want to email me your email address, Anonymous. :)

    Thank you both for the compliments. It was a very fun shoot. Sad, but fun. My attempt at making beauty out of pain.

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