Mind the information gap! Constructing counter-narratives for urban planning in Detroit’s photobooks

Using a series of photobooks, this paper examines the role of photobooks as an alternative platform for shaping, displaying, and questioning Detroit’s narratives. It delves into the untapped potential of photobooks in shaping urban imaginaries – an aspect often neglected in urban studies. By centring on the power of visual storytelling, it uncovers narratives that go beyond the city’s official image or the lens of urban explorers. Through visual framing analysis, the photobooks Thanks for the View, Mr Mies ;(2012) and Your Town Tomorrow (2017) are analysed to construct counter-narratives that challenge the dichotomy of ruination and rebirth. The re-contextualization and re-appropriating of widely recognized styles of architectural and urban photography – specifically, archival images in the former and ruin imagery in the latter – serves to interrogate the commercialization of Detroit’s image by city administrations and other entities looking to capitalize on the city’s opportunities. This study emphasizes the narrative potential of photobooks in challenging dominant cultural representations, redirecting attention to the unfamiliar, fostering new conversations, attachments, identities. Ultimately, this close reading of photobooks challenges the persistent focus on growth and instead asks us to place community wealth at the centre of what Detroit is all about; to question the ideals of the American Dream.