It has been a while since we’ve indulged in our obsession with photography of abandoned places, but thanks to The Ruins of Detroit , a book by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, we’ve given in. “It seems like Detroit has just been left to die,” Marchand recently explained to The Guardian . “Many times we would enter huge art deco buildings with once-beautiful chandeliers, ornate columns and extraordinary frescoes, and everything was crumbling and covered in dust, and the sense that you had entered a lost world was almost overwhelming. In a very real way, Detroit is a lost world — or at least a lost city where the magnificence of its past is everywhere evident.” Click through to preview some of our favorite photographs featured in the book.
Michigan Central Station. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Woodward Avenue. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Atrium, Farwell Building. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
18th floor dentist cabinet, David Broderick Tower. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
David Whitney Building. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
United Artists Theater. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Fort Shelby Hotel. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Ballroom, American Hotel. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
William Livingstone House. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Melted clock, Cass Technical High School. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
First Unitarian Church. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Piano, Saint Albertus School. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
East Methodist Church. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Classroom, St Margaret Mary School. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Biology classroom, Wilbur Wright High School. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
St Christopher House, ex-Public Library. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Packard Motors Plant. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Fisher Body 21 Plant. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography
Ballroom, Lee Plaza Hotel. Photo credit: Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography