//Quan and Mathias//
In 2010, I founded a portrait project called The People of Detroit. The project was created as a counterpoint to media focused on ruins in the storied birthplace of American manufacturing.
In 2017, Kathryn Bigelow commissioned me to create a series of images to promote "Detroit" -- a film about the city's 1967 civil disturbance. This is one of the photographs from that series.
True to TPOD's contrarian spirit, I saw this commission as an opportunity to push back against the
common idea the disturbance was a "rebellion." I tend to agree with UMich historian Sidney Fine:
"Those involved in the disturbance in Detroit can hardly be described as having been engaged in 'organized armed resistance to an established government,' as rebellion is commonly defined," Fine wrote in "Violence in the Motor City."
By asking my subjects about '67's "long-lasting impact," I hoped to circumvent semantics and focus on the lingering harm caused by the disturbance. This idea is further communicated visually by smoke emanating from sites affected by the '67 riots (here, the Algiers Motel where police killed 3 black teens).
Despite my careful setting of the rhetorical dice, many
interviewees, including Quan, romanticized the rioters:
“In a way, maybe the guy [stealing a color TV] is fighting oppression."
More: https://www.noahstephens.com/the-people-of-detroit-50-years-later/
