Houses in Detroit Photography

A Forgotten Detroit Remembered
By SAMANTHA STOREY

When Kevin Bauman began photographing Detroit’s derelict houses in the late ’90s, his intention was to create a record of the homes before they were torn down to make way for new development. Using an old Hasselblad camera, Mr. Bauman, 37, a Web developer and freelance photographer, shot them straight on, in the style of commercial catalog photography.

“I wanted to leave the houses alone and not put too much of myself in them,” he explained.

A decade later, most of the structures are still standing, as development in Detroit never reached a fever pitch. And as the houses continue to deteriorate, the photographs, at 100abandonedhouses.com, provide a beautiful and heartbreaking record of what were once some of the city’s grandest properties.

Inkjet prints of the images are available for $35 each, and Mr. Bauman is donating 30 percent of the profits to the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. “I don’t think a single person from Detroit has ordered any,” he said. “If you grew up looking at these houses, it just makes you mad.”