Roosevelt Warehouse – May 2008
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Roosevelt Warehouse, also known as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, is located just across the road from Michigan Central Station which we had just explored.
The building was made internationally infamous several years after my visit when Jonnie Redding, a homeless man, died in the building. Urban Explorers playing hockey on the ice in the basement discovered the body and promptly called the police.
Unfortunately, the press at the time decided that a juicy story about urban explorers ignoring a dead body while they played hockey would sell better as a metaphor for what was happening in Detroit than the truth would. It is not my story to tell so I will leave it to Nailhed to provide a first hand account of what actually happened. Suffice it to say that Jonny’s body was not ignored and the police were called. It was a tragic story that wound up in the center of a media frenzy where the truth was not the primary concern.
May 2008 was my first visit to Detroit and I found the condition of the city, the entire city, shocking. It took my breath away that people did not know how bad things were there. It was unimaginable to someone from the Northeast that things could get to that point. I’m not going to lie and say that my photography was driven by a desire to shine a light on what was happening there. My photography was driven by a desire to make art and have fun. After my first visit, however, I did hope that my images of the utter desolation would bring more attention to the alarming situation that was unfolding there.
When Jonnie Redding’s death hit news around the world, it was probably the first time a story about Detroit got so much attention. As Nailhed says, it was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. It finally drew some attention to the plight of a once-great city.
Rest in Peace Jonny Redding.
Our next stop on this trip was Fisher Body 21.
Roosevelt Warehouse, also known as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, is located just across the road from Michigan Central Station which we had just explored.
The building was made internationally infamous several years after my visit when Jonnie Redding, a homeless man, died in the building. Urban Explorers playing hockey on the ice in the basement discovered the body and promptly called the police.
Unfortunately, the press at the time decided that a juicy story about urban explorers ignoring a dead body while they played hockey would sell better as a metaphor for what was happening in Detroit than the truth would. It is not my story to tell so I will leave it to Nailhed to provide a first hand account of what actually happened. Suffice it to say that Jonny’s body was not ignored and the police were called. It was a tragic story that wound up in the center of a media frenzy where the truth was not the primary concern.
May 2008 was my first visit to Detroit and I found the condition of the city, the entire city, shocking. It took my breath away that people did not know how bad things were there. It was unimaginable to someone from the Northeast that things could get to that point. I’m not going to lie and say that my photography was driven by a desire to shine a light on what was happening there. My photography was driven by a desire to make art and have fun. After my first visit, however, I did hope that my images of the utter desolation would bring more attention to the alarming situation that was unfolding there.
When Jonnie Redding’s death hit news around the world, it was probably the first time a story about Detroit got so much attention. As Nailhed says, it was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. It finally drew some attention to the plight of a once-great city.
Rest in Peace Jonny Redding.
Our next stop on this trip was Fisher Body 21.