Snow Floor, Michigan Central

With formal clarity and quiet beauty, Snow Floor, Michigan Central depicts nature’s penetration into the heart of a once-thriving urban space. This image by Scott Hocking draws on his intimate knowledge of Detroit. A native of the city, Hocking has often made sculpture from materials scavenged from crumbling streets and abandoned buildings.

In 2000, he also began photographing the city’s transformation from a globally famous engine of American industry and culture to a sparsely populated, semi-rural territory. Finding resources where others see decay, Hocking is part of a group of artists and others working to transform Motown’s urban landscapes. Rather than fleeing Detroit or romanticizing its ongoing crisis, these artists have developed inventive strategies that use the city itself as an artistic medium.