Thanks for the view, Mr. Mies
Thanks for the view, Mr. Mies (Detroit, 2009) is a series of portraits of residents in their living rooms in the Lafayette Park neighborhood of downtown Detroit, home to the largest collection of Mies van der Rohe-designed buildings in the world. While much has been written about Mies’s life and work, the purpose of this series is to focus attention on the community of people who live in his buildings and the way this utopian mid-20th century urban renewal project has successfully survived and adapted to present-day conditions in Detroit. Rather than focusing on the starck interior spaces and austere exteriors that one might expect to see in photographs of iconic modernist architecture, these portraits seek to show the organic and idiosyncratic ways that people live in Lafayette Park.
The photographs were made in collaboration with the group Placement, and published in their book 'Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies' (Metropolis Books, 2012).
For more images + audio, see the interactive feature: 'Living Rooms With a View'
228 pages
Softcover | 6.5 x 9.5 in
Designed by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani
Published by Metropolis Books, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-935202-92-9
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