Dilapidated Detroit

Giorgio Orlandi uses his trusty 35mm lens to capture beautiful images of a once thriving city.

- Giorgio Orlandi

Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest cities to ever file for bankruptcy. This happened in 2013, when I first moved here. It was hard to imagine that this dilapidated city, which was littered with decaying factories, office spaces and theatres, was the home of the US auto industry for almost a century.

I took the wet floor shot [1] in an old abandoned factory, just outside downtown Detroit. I was drawn by the apparent symmetry, with the leading lines in the ceiling reflected in the puddles of water on the floor. I typically shoot in Aperture Priority mode, and to capture the ripples and freeze the wall fan that was spinning in the gusty wind, my shutter speed needed to be quite quick, so I had to increase the ISO.