Volume 78 - Number 51 / May 27 - June 2 , 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

Villager photos by Q. Sakamaki

Down and out in Detroit: A city running on fumes

East Village photographer Q. Sakamaki was in Detroit in March documenting how that Midwestern city is faring in the economic crisis. This page, clockwise from above: An automobile factory that closed down in the 1990s; a dead dog near a factory that had been painted on by “I don’t know, some kind of sick people — some people so sick,” Sakamaki said; job applications at a fast-food restaurant. Opposite page, clockwise from top: A man sits on a car seat in an empty field near Downtown Detroit; a pawnshop that was closing due to the economy; a homeless man waiting for a handout outside a diner.