What started as a 'creative outlet' quickly grew into a humanitarian project. In Kevin's words::
"...The abandoned houses project began innocently enough roughly ten years ago. I actually began photographing abandonment in Detroit in the mid 90’s as a creative outlet, and as a way of satisfying my curiosity with the state of my home town. I had always found it to be amazing, depressing, and perplexing that a once great city could find itself in such great distress, all the while surrounded by such affluence.
Brush Park, on the outskirts of Detroit’s entertainment district was always an area of interest to me. For as long as I can remember the area, housing large houses and mansions, sat largely abandoned just a stones throw away from the Fox Theater, and not far from Wayne State University, the Masonic Theater, and even the central business district. How could an area that was obviously once a wealthy enclave in the city become an example of the downfall of American cities?..." {read more of this awe-inspiring story}
Although there are many things that immediately strike me as I look through these beautifully photographed structures, the one thing that takes center stage in my mind is that, at one time these mere shells of a house were 'home' to some family. That these homes, now left to their own devices, hold memories and tales of a time when within these walls there was unabounding life.
"...although the number of abandoned houses in Detroit is more like 12,000..." , below are 13 Kevin Bauman's::
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