Driving Detroit: A Snapshot of the City

In the summer of 2007 Detroit Free Press columnist Bill McGraw and members of the Free Press photo staff explored all 2,100 streets in the city of Detroit. They documented their travels in the award-winning five-part series “Driving Detroit,” originally published in the Detroit Free Press and online. McGraw and other staffers will discuss the making of the series and an exhibit of selected photos and videos will open Friday, May 30 at 7:00 p.m. at the Boll Family YMCA, 1401 Broadway, in downtown Detroit. The event is free and open to the public.

A Free Press writer since 1977, McGraw and a team of thirteen photographers and videographers traveled the city to document its many faces and activities. Artists, designers and web specialists prepared the series for publication in the paper and on freep.com. McGraw will tell the story of this four-month trek through a slide presentation while discussing the widespread response to the series. A showing of more than 1,000 still photos taken for the series opens the event. The video stories, nominated for a Michigan Emmy Award, enable viewers to experience the city and hear the people and places behind the headlines about Detroit’s simultaneous rebirth and unraveling. The exhibit runs through August.

“Driving Detroit” is presented by Y-Arts, the Arts & Humanities Branch of the YMCA of Metro Detroit, thedetroiter.com, an online arts magazine operated by Y-Arts, and the Detroit Free Press. For additional information contact YArts at 313-223-2751.