Life in Detroit usually feels strangely futuristic; not only is it post-industrial, it is also post-urban. With so much vacancy and abandonment it is a likely place for imagining and dreaming up alternate scenarios. For the last couple of days I’ve been walking around my neighborhood noticing a lot of non-functioning cars sitting next to people’s homes or in adjacent lots. In seeing these, for a brief moment it feels like people have actually begun to ditch their vehicles. As if the great American Automobile has finally become obsolete, making way for whatever comes next.

The destination was Ponca City in the north of Oklahoma. That’s where the heartland of the USA starts - that great unknown America stretching all the way up to the Canadian border. Our gig was at Webb’s World of Fun, which would soon turn out to be a euphemism for a grimy, dilapidated slum.

For the moment, getting there was what mattered. It was late October, still warm, typical Indian Summer weather (oddly, the best song about that was written by a Frenchman, Joe Dassin in his L’été indien). Just before nightfall, with the car windows wound down, we cruised into Oklahoma. The surroundings grew gradually emptier - something we couldn’t really see on that moonless night, but we could feel it. Apart from the headlights of occasional oncoming vehicles, the only signs of life were tiny pinpricks of light at immeasurable distances. It was like being in a space capsule, soaring over some far-off planet, in some remote galaxy. The lukewarm breeze, as old as time itself, washed through the car.

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On 25 July 2008, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a speech in Berlin, next to the Siegessäule (Victory Column).
Below are a few photographs of the event (photorights: Jeremiah Day).

Read about the striking similarities between the presidential seal and the logo of Barack Obama.

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Although I have been continuing to photograph and explore the city, practicing driving and being thankful that I don’t have to do this on the much more crowded roads of the Netherlands (Detroit has recently been dubbed the safest U.S. city to drive in—because the roads are half empty) I have been spending almost all of my time photographing and co-producing a catalog with the local contemporary art museum (MOCAD) for their current exhibition ‘considering Detroit’.

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, housed in a former car dealership

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