Facing Change: Documenting Detroit Bringing Photography to Dlectricity

We are so excited to welcome our first ever photo-montage installation to Dlectricity 2017!

Facing Change: Documenting Detroit is part of the organization Facing Change: Documenting America, a non-profit collective of photojournalists working nationally to independently document America today.

Inspired by the Farm Security Administration’s storied photography program during the Great Depression that documented rural poverty, the Facing Change organization hopes to tell a wide range of real stories.

Facing Change: Documenting Detroit is a summer fellowship program that pairs emerging Detroit-based photographers with established mentors to develop their skills and build portfolios while documenting Detroit. The 2017 fellows will present their photography work at Dlectricity, projected onto the facade of The Wright Museum of African American History.

2017 fellows include Alexa Borromeo, Anthony Lanzilote, Corey Turner, Damon Adams, Erik Howard, Jeff Pearson, Jeremy Brockman, Junfu Han, LaToya Colts, Mishira Davis, Marisol Dorantes-Silva, Sal Rodriguez, Samantha Otto and Viviana Pernot.

2017 program mentors include Samantha Appleton, Nancy Watson Barr, Carlos Diaz, Kholood Eid, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Kathy Kieliszewski, Alexis Lambrou, Patricia Lay-Dorsey, Joanna Lehan, Andrea Mellen Birnbaum, Brian Palmer and William Valicenti.

The fellows work to bridge a gap where traditional journalism is often missing in order to tell stories that are uniquely Detroit. You can check out some of the fellows’ projects on public view around Detroit: in the windows of 1220 Library Street, Grand on River (5001 Grand River Ave, Detroit), and at Field and Kercheval. Check out more information here.

Thank you so much to founders Karah Shaffer and Alan Chin for bringing this project to Detroit and Dlectricity 2017. Thanks to the Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation for sponsoring this project, and to the Wright Museum for hosting this project!

Check out a Freep photo gallery of work from the fellows on the 4th of July here.