Detroit's skyline begins to glow as twilight embraces the city, as seen from the roof of the Packard Plant, 2008. In October 2008 I made my third or fourth of what has become countless visits to the Packard. My father, Lowell Boileau and I decided to see what the vista had to offer after dark. It was a typical autumn day, warm at the onset, and much cooler at night, a chill that was seemingly worsened by the contrast between the polarities. I had just acquired a cable release for my camera which turned out to be a crucial investment being that I was shooting in blub mode and would have been shivering too much to capture the photo by using the on camera button. I was uncomfortable on the surface level but the experience as a whole was very gratifying. On our way out, Lowell said something to me along the lines of 'Welcome to the ranks of the artists'. It felt a bit stoic, but also fitting, so I opted not to give him a hard time about it. The statement would take more meaning later. As it turns out, this section of roof that had facilitated the photo collapsed to the floor below some years later in the fourth of an ongoing series of structural failures to this part of the factory.
- Author
- Nicolas Boileau